Cartoonist Michael Leunig has lost his prestigious position in The Age after sparking outrage over an ill-informed mandatory vaccination comparison.

Leunig might be an Australian Living Treasure but that clearly doesn’t make him untouchable. After posting an image on his Instagram account comparing the mandatory vaccination programme to the iconic ‘tank man’ protestor in China’s Tiananmen Square, he’s been relieved of his duties at The Age.

The image was posted to Instagram at the end of last month but didn’t actually make it to a print edition of the newspaper. Speculation began to surface last week that Leunig’s time was up after a statement appeared in The Age saying that they were “trialling new cartoonists.”

Now, Leunig has confirmed the decision to The Australian. He revealed that The Age’s editor Gay Alcorn informed him shortly after the cartoon first appeared to “break the news gently” that his services were no longer required. Leunig was allegedly told he was “out of touch with the readership.”

“Gay feels this type of cartoon is not in line with public sentiment, and The Age’s readership, who it does seem are largely in favour of the Andrews Covid narrative,” Leunig explained. “But my job is to challenge the status quo, and that has always been the job of the cartoonist.”

He also tried to explain his use of the Tiananmen Square image, saying that it was regularly used in cartoons globally as a “Charlie Chaplin-like metaphor for overwhelming force meeting the innocent powerless individual.”

It’s not all bad news for Leunig though: Alcorn confirmed that the cartoonist remains on the books of The Age, and will still produce a cartoon for the newspaper’s Saturday Spectrum section.

Reaction to Leunig’s post was, as you can imagine, rather mixed. “Really? Comparing a vaccination to Tiananmen Square massacre? This undermines every other piece of art you have made that comments on humanity and social justice. Incredibly disappointing,” wrote one commenter.

“This is disgusting,” said Georgia Maq, member of Melbourne alternative rock band Camp Cope.

“Bless you Leunig. We need more brave artists like you,” someone else said. Another user simply commented with the fire emoji.

Leunig has a long history of courting controversy. In 2015, he provoked backlash after creating a cartoon comparing the Victorian government to fascists, after a proposal to ban children who weren’t vaccinated from childcare centres.

He’s also frequently drew criticism from “working mothers” due to satirising the heavy use of childcare services in Australia.

But the artist who once said, “artists must never shrink from a confrontation with society or the state,” will probably feels he’s a victim after his axing from The Age

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