CARTOON - THAT MALIGNANT GROWTH

Western Australian Premier Sir James Mitchell is depicted on the right of the image. He is measuring the girth of the state deficit, which is represented as the obese man on the left of the image.
A svelte Miss Western Australian looks on the scene, as does a Kookaburra.
A news article of the time quoted Sir Mitchell's comments to the annual gathering of the Royal Institute of Architects where the Premier announced the lowest annual deficit for seven years.
Western Australia like much of the rest of the country saw economic decline following the end of World War One. The cost of the war had had a very large impact on the local and nation economy. Western Australia's economy, much like the national economy at the time, was very vulnerable to commodity prices which remained low and did not recover for many years causing Australia to quickly fall in the great depression of the late 1920s and early 1930s.
Ben Strange is mocking the Premier's comments. Though WA had a smaller deficit the Western Australia was still not showing any real signs of recovery.