Bill Leak: A larrikin, a stirrer, a brave pricker of balloons

Bill Leak was so many things, he leaves not just one gaping hole but a universe of them.

Bill Leak was so many things, he leaves not just one gaping hole but a universe of them.

Stan Grant on that cartoon, on ABC 702 on November 2:

A lot of indigenous people thought (Bill Leak’s cartoon) was casting a slur on all indigenous fathers. But if you look at that cartoon, it was a much more complex thing. He was raising an issue which was part of the national debate, the question of parental ­responsibility. The policeman in the cartoon was indigenous, the father in the cartoon was indigenous, it was a much more complex thing … I didn’t think it was a particularly great cartoon, I think there are better ways of doing it, but if these things create a ­debate, it’s important we bring our voices to it and speak about this in an open and respectful way … I think sometimes you can be offended, yes, but that’s the price you pay for having an open democracy where people are able to speak their minds.

Francis Leach on Facebook yesterday:

I may have been offended by some of (Leak’s) later work but I always reminded myself that it was a precious thing to defend. The right to offend. Because in defending his right to do so it commands a reciprocity that for so long served us well. The competition of ideas. Disagreeing without being disagreeable. Questioning your own values as much as those of others. Demonising dissenters and mavericks is a failure of civic character that leaves us much poorer for it. Thanks Bill Leak. We may not have always agreed, but we had fun doing it.

Mark Colvin on ABC PM yesterday:

The last few years brought misfortune to Bill Leak — a fall from a high wall on to his head put him in a coma and left him with a long period of recovery from brain injuries. A fire destroyed many of his canvases just before an exhibition he’d been preparing for years. He returned to cartooning with a harsher line, and, many believed, a more brutal and angry style. It led him into huge fights over fundamentalist Islam and Aboriginal poverty, which he pursued with his usual vigour. Death threats and abuse left him shaken but, when I spoke to him recently, still determined not to take a backward step. Love him or hate him, Bill Leak was part of a long tradition of Australian larrikinism.

Jack the Insider on The Australian’s website yesterday:

I’ve flipped through social media and have seen some outrageously ill-mannered and nasty references, mocking Bill in death. At first I was angry. Now I’m sanguine. I realise Bill would have loved it. If nothing else Bill was an agitator, a stirrer, a man with the courage to prick the balloon.

Bill could at least bring clarity. Strewth on October 28:

Even with Malcolm Turnbull, there’s a time and a place for answering a question clearly and concisely. Admittedly it’s not the most regular occurrence with the PM but for a magic moment while discussing our colleague Bill Leak with 3AW’s Neil Mitchell yesterday, it happened.

Mitchell: “Is he a racist?”

Turnbull: “Of course not.”

Alas, as with all good things, this adventure in clarity soon petered out. Compare and contrast with another moment of character exploration that unfurled (or at least tried to unfurl) during the interview.

Mitchell: “Is George Brandis a dickhead?”

Turnbull (laughing): “Well.”

The Daily Telegraph’s James Morrow on Facebook yesterday:

If it’s not in terrible taste I am sort of imagining St Peter looking up from his scrolls and asking, as a pair of angels haul Bill before him, “Righto, what’s his name, then?”

Bill Leak on the joy of drawing Mark Latham, July 20, 2012:

If you looked at his head in profile, it was a bit like a fence post just poking out of a collar or a pole poking out of a collar and then just with this great big bulbous nose on the front. But no shape at the back.