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

June 8, 2026 — 1:23pm

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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)........

© The Sydney Morning Herald