As we speak, NSW Premier Mike Baird is likely scrambling to get on down to Chippendale to pose in front of the latest piece of street artwork graffiti depicting him as a corrupt POS (to store away and post online for next year’s Graffiti Removal Day, no doubt).
Sydney artist Scott Marsh, whom you may remember from such controversial pieces of street art as the one of Kanye West tongue-punching the crap out of himself or this one where he turbo-roasted #CasinoMike the first time has returned to once again pay homage to his favourite political muse.
Using Chippendale’s tattoo parlour Venomous Ink as his canvas, the career paint-splasher has depicted the Prem wearing a shit-eating grin and shaking hands with iconic Simpsons mob boss and all-around bad guy Fat Tony, in a powerful yet pop culturally bang-on statement skewering the corruption allegations currently dogging the Baird government at every turn.
Posting an snap of his new street masterpiece on Instagram, Marsh urged punters to “follow the money”. And instead of honing in on the widespread corruption claims targeting Baird’s relationship to the gambling lobby in the wake of the Star Casino’s still-unjustified, financially advantageous exemption from the city’s lockout laws (which are literally killing all its competition), this time he referred to the Liberal leader’s equally dubious WestConnex project and his suss AF overhaul of the state’s corruption watchdog.
“The more I speak to people much more intelligent and knowledgable than me about the WestConnex project and @mikebairdmp’s overhaul of the #icac the shadier it gets,” the artist stated.
He then added in a follow-up Insty post: “If we read about this in a third world country – a public inquiry into politicians behaving badly, donations being made illegally and secretly, a report published and then the government brings forward legislation to get rid of the head of the organisation which published the report and tries to dilute the powers of that person, you’d say … well, same old, same old, it’s corrupt.”
Marsh’s last street portrait of #CasinoMike depicted him kicking back with a glass of Penfolds Grange – a nod to his predecessor whose career was undone by an undeclared $3,000 bottle of the red stuff from a business tycoon — surrounded by a stack of poker chips (a nod to the Casino) a past-our-Baird-time clock showing 1.31 am and an illegal kebab in his hot little hand.
As mentioned above, Baird kicked up a shitstorm of hate after he took a snapshot of himself posing in front of the offending mural then kept it saved just to post online five months later — after it had long been painted over — as a joke about NSW’s official ‘Graffiti Removal Day’.
As Pedestrian.TV reports, former Mayor of Leichhardt Darcy Byrne – who was one of 42 elected mayors and councillors ousted by Baird earlier this year for reasons that are still sketchy AF – has slapped a pic of Marshie’s new Mikey B masterpiece on Facebook, referring to Baird’s earlier graffiti gaffe.
“Hey Mike Baird, don’t go taking this one down, it’s called art,” he wrote.
But considering Baird & co’s idea of a global city’s thriving culture seems to be a night out on the choc-tops at Event Cinemas, we’d say prospects of him letting this one stick around aren’t great.
