The long-time cartoonist, who is in Canberra this weekend to launch his latest book, said he watched the ceremony this week while on a plane trip, and felt a sense of dread.

''I'm not impressed by Tony Abbott as the Prime Minister. He's just another ambitious guy and he too will come unstuck and it will all go pear-shaped for him and his life, and meanwhile they all strut and bluster about,'' he said.

For those who know his work, it's not surprising that Leunig is turned off by the political circus, and that he is more attracted to the whimsy, lunacy and complexity of ordinary people.

''There's a real divide, I think, between the political classes and the power classes and the corporate classes, and just the people, I suppose,'' he said. ''I still have a concept of the people which I don't think is too idealised - just people who are powerless and voiceless, I guess, in the main, and they interest me because they are the lifeblood of the culture and there's a temperament they have, and that's interesting, their concerns and their problems and fears. All these are worth observing and trying to read, and it's not easy to read, you've got to be quite intuitive, and mix with people and talk to people and feel what's happening.''

His new book, Holy Fool, is made up not of his cartoons but of art work including paintings, print-making and drawing, dating back to the 1980s.

''It's all the stuff that I did for myself and not for the world,'' he said.

''I hope that there's something in the spirit and the mood of them that relates to my work, that there's something consistent there in my personality.''

While he admitted to being ''fatigued'' by politics, he had no plans to retire just yet, although he dreamed of a time when he could retreat from deadlines and focus on his art.

''You can do it forever and I have always looked forward to that time, because it's very pleasurable. It has its funny little anxious stresses but they're all human-scale and they're lovely stresses, and you produce these things that you like, and they're not going to be judged or held necessarily,'' he said.

''And all the trouble your cartooning can bring into your life, the offence you cause quite inadvertently … I'll be glad to be done with that. Sometimes you believe you're provoking in the great tradition of our democracy … [but] people carry on as if you've made some legislation when all you've done is drawn a cartoon! People can get very touchy and very angry.''

Michael Leunig will be speaking about Holy Fool at the National Library of Australia on Saturday at 2pm. Tickets are $10.