Australian cartoonist Bill Leak dies aged 61

Editorial cartoonist Bill Leak has died aged 61.

The Australian newspaper has confirmed he died in hospital after a suspected heart attack last night.

Leak won nine Walkley awards and 19 Stanley awards for his work, which was often controversial. Many regarded him as a bastion of free speech and Australian values while others were critical of his views on Aboriginal Australians and the LGBT community.

Recently, one of Leak's cartoons depicting an Aboriginal father and son sparked a complaint to the Human Rights Commission under section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.

The complaint was later dropped but not before sparking ongoing debate about whether section 18C should be amended.

A number of conservative federal politicians used the complaint to argue in favour of it being changed.

Editor-in-chief Paul Whittaker has described the multiple Walkley award winner as a “giant in his field of cartooning and portraiture and a towering figure for more than two decades".

Whittaker said Leak was "simply irreplaceable".

“We will miss him dreadfully and our hearts go out to his wife Goong, his stepdaughter Tasha and his sons Johannes and Jasper,” he said.