‘Ditch the witch’ is back – a sign of the decline in our political discourse

June 8, 2026 — 1:23pm

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.

Remove items from your saved list to add more.

Frank Puleo, the owner of the Gotham City brothel in South Melbourne, has a solution to the crime wave that has lately affected the city’s hospitality venues, including his own, which was the target of a drive-by shooting in April.

The solution, produced by Puleo and some other like-minded people, can be expressed in just three words: Ditch the witch.

This was the slogan (derivative but ever-powerful) featured in an advertisement that has been driven around Melbourne on the back of a truck.

The ad campaign, which reportedly cost over $100,000, featured a huge picture of said witch – Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan.

She had a black witch’s hat photo-shopped on her head, and for reasons unknown, the witch’s hat had a dollar sign superimposed on it (to be fair, dollar signs are probably a preoccupation of any brothel owner).

Melbourne brothel owner among funders of ‘Ditch the Witch’ billboards against Allan

Allan is frowning – in the semiology of witchery, she is a wicked witch, not a good (read: pretty, nice)........

© Brisbane Times