Matt Golding Named MoAD’s 2025 Cartoonist of the Year
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The Museum of Australian Democracy has named Matt Golding its 2025 Political Cartoonist of the Year.
MoAD’s announcement states:
Golding was clear winner in the voting for this year’s award. A master of the pocket cartoon, in 2025 he created work that was funny, poignant and constantly inventive. His cartoons covered the big themes of the year, including the 2025 federal election and its aftermath, climate change, inequalities faced by Indigenous peoples, child abuse in daycare centres, the housing crisis and various other stories from around the world.
Matt Golding is a Melbourne-based cartoonist who currently draws political cartoons for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
Six weeks ago Golding was a finalist for The 2025 Australian Cartoonists Association’s Stan Cross Award.
Kerrie O’Brien atThe Sydney Morning Herald reported on the cartoonist’s win (or here):
Known for his whip-smart, funny and incisive drawings, Golding sees his work as a way of making sense of politics, society and the world more generally. “It’s just a great way to communicate an idea and also just deal with the world,” he says. “There’s a power in the medium in the way it can communicate really complex ideas.”
However, cartooning is often stressful, given very tight deadlines and a fast-moving news cycle. “It’s really fun once you have the idea. Up to that point, you are not always the best person to be around.
“What I love about the job is that every day is a new creative challenge, and to a certain extent, it doesn’t really matter what that subject is – you want to take all the different aspects and ideas and whittle it down to its essence and capture that, as simply as possible,” Golding says.
This is in association with MoAD’s annual Behind the Lines exhibition:
All the twists and turns of another eventful year in Australian politics are showcased in Behind the Lines 2025: Are We Rolling? – the annual cartoon exhibition at the Museum of Australian Democracy (MoAD) opens today at Old Parliament House. Behind the Lines this year celebrates its 30th year, making it one of the longest-running annual exhibitions in Australia.
Drawing inspiration from the wonderful world of movie making, this year’s exhibition features 45 of Australia’s finest cartoonists. Using humour, satire and pathos, they have turned in star performances to interpret this year’s political drama and intrigue, here at home and overseas.
“We have 130 of the best cartoons of the year, covering all the major news stories. A great cartoonist responds to more than just recent headlines, they tease out broader themes that resonate long after yesterday’s news becomes tomorrow’s fish and chip wrapping.”
Behind the Lines 2025: Are We Rolling? will be on display at MoAD at Old Parliament House, Canberra from 4 December 2025 until November 2026. Entry is free from 9am to 5pm daily (except Christmas Day).
A note on the upcoming Traveling exhibition:
A selection of cartoons from Behind the Lines will tour the country, taking the works to a wider audience. The tour is generously supported by the federal government through a grant from the National Collecting Institutions Touring and Outreach Program (NCITO).
Maybe we in the U.S. can get our present government to underwrite a traveling editorial cartoon exhibit.
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