Larry Pickering, one of Australia’s most well-known cartoonists, came to Canberra in the 1960s when he got a job as a proofreader on the city’s daily newspaper, the Canberra Times. He decided to be the newspaper’s first editorial cartoonist, and before long his work was a daily feature.

Pickering was always passionate about politics, and entered the political stage briefly in 1974 when he was asked to stand as a local Liberal candidate for the seat of Fraser in the House of Representatives. Because he had such a large following as a cartoonist, Pickering won a 12% swing to the Liberal Party, quite an achievement in a traditional Labor stronghold.

Badge donor Alan Duke staffed a table for the Liberal Party at Macquarie Primary School at the 1974 election. The party gave the badge to all helpers in order to raise Pickering’s profile. He says: ‘The badge is perhaps the only memento of my work for the Liberal Party in the ’70s’, work of which he is still proud.