The 29th Bald Archy Prize of $10,000 has gone to artist Phil Meatchem, for his work Despicable Ploy, it was announced at the Canberra Potters and Watson Art Centre on Friday.

The 2024 People’s Choice Award was also announced, going to artist Marty Steel for his work, Let there be a Thousand Blossoms Bloom, which features a banana-toting Bob Katter.

Meatchem’s winning work satirises opposition leader Peter Dutton’s proposed nuclear power infrastructure plan and is one of six representations of Mr Dutton in the prize this year.

“I’m not an artist with a strong political view,” Phil Meatchem said. “It was a simple idea of what looked like a pretty scary dude, to me at least, and these ominous-looking nuclear monoliths.”

The brainchild of the late theatrical director Peter Batey, the Bald Archy Prize is Australia’s premier satirical art prize. It was created by him in 1994 as part of the Coolac Festival of Fun to ridicule the Archibald Prize, with Dame Edna Everage as patron and judged by sulphur-crested cockatoo from Coolac, Maude, as judge, another sign of exactly what Batey thought about the Archibald’s processes.

After Batey’s death in 2019, Wagga Wagga City Council’s Museum of the Riverina accepted the offer of donation from his estate to take ownership of the collection of winners and to continue running the annual prize.

The 2025 Bald Archy Prize closes at the Canberra Potters and Watson Art Centre, Watson, on March 23, then sets off on an interstate tour. The 2025 entries can be viewed here http://baldarchy.com.au