Dwarves, a ship in troubled waters, enemies-turned friends and a bruised and battered action hero.

Nope, we’re not talking about a new Lord of the Rings film, but the front pages of the nation’s newspapers on the morning after the Federal Budget 2015.

Almost every major daily newspaper in the country has embraced the post-budget cartoon tradition this year, making for some colourful works of art spruiking page after page of budget coverage.

• Strangest things in Budget 2015 
• Hockey delivers ‘have a go’ budget 
• Paul Bongiorno: a budget to save Joe’s bacon

Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph had Joe Hockey, Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison channelling Snow White’s seven dwarfs:

Scott Morrison, Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey all appeared as panicked ship’s captains in Melbourne’s Herald Sun:

The Australian featured a before and after shot comparing last year’s “lifter” approach to this year’s “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” approach:

The Age‘s budget coverage featured a solo Joe Hockey as “Mild Max” on a “road to recovery”, a play on Mel Gibson’s iconic “Mad Max” character.

The Sydney Morning Herald also featured a solo Hockey, brewing free of chains in his role as “kickstarter”.

Possibly the least flattering of the front pages, the Financial Review had Hockey as a father bottle-feeding a baby Scott Morrison with budget benefits, while a speedo-clad Abbott does the washing.

Finally, The West Australian pitched Hockey and Abbott as cleaners, fixing up the mess left by last year’s budget and working to “revive the nation”.