Kennedy AustralianHouse of RepresentativesDivision
Interactive map of boundaries since the2019 federal election
Created	1901
MP	Bob Katter
Party	Katter's Australian
Namesake	Edmund Kennedy
Electors	123,724 (2025)
Area	567,377 km2 (219,065.5 sq mi)
Demographic	Rural
Electorates around Kennedy: Gulf of Carpentaria Leichhardt Coral Sea Lingari Kennedy Herbert Dawson Lingari Maranoa Capricornia

TheDivision of Kennedy is anAustralian electoral division in thestate ofQueensland. It is the state's second-largest division after the neighbouringDivision of Maranoa, stretching from theNorthern Territory border and theGulf of Carpentaria to theCoral Sea, just southeast ofCairns and northwest ofTownsville.

Since 1993 itsMP has beenBob Katter, who has beenFather of the House since 2022. Katter foundedKatter's Australian Party in 2011, after sitting 10 years as an Independent following him leaving theNational Party.

The Division of Kennedy includes the regional city ofMount Isa in the west, as well as surrounding towns such asCloncurry andCamooweal. In theGulf of Carpentaria, it includes theWellesley Islands. On the Pacific coast, it includes settlements such asForrest Beach,Cardwell,Wongaling Beach andMission Beach.

Since 1984, federal electoral division boundaries in Australia have been determined at redistributions by a redistribution committee appointed by theAustralian Electoral Commission. Redistributions occur for the boundaries of divisions in a particular state, and they occur every seven years, or sooner if a state's representation entitlement changes or when divisions of a state are malapportioned.^[1]

The division was proclaimed in 1900, and was one of theoriginal 65 divisions to be contested at thefirst federal election. It is named afterEdmund Kennedy, an explorer in the area where the division is located in Queensland.

The member since 1993 isBob Katter Jr., the leader ofKatter's Australian Party. He was previously elected as a member of theNational Party, but became an independent in 2001 before forming his own party in 2011.

Geographically, the electorate is rural. It takes in the Pacific coast of Queensland betweenCairns andTownsville, including a small portion of Cairns itself, before sweeping westward to take in most of Queensland's northernoutback—a large, increasingly sparsely populated area stretching west to the border with theNorthern Territory. The largest population centre in the electorate is the city ofMount Isa, in its far west. Until 1949, the electorate was even larger, encompassing most of the state north of Townsville, becoming still larger when it absorbed Cairns in 1934. However, much of its northern portion, including the Cairns area, became theDivision of Leichhardt in 1949.

Kennedy was held by theAustralian Labor Party for most of the first half of the 20th century, and was one of the few country seats where Labor consistently did well. From Federation until1966, Labor held it for all but two terms. However, since 1966 it has been held by the conservative Katter family—Bob Sr. and his son, Bob Jr.—for all but one term. It has long since shaken off its Labor past, and is now often colloquially nicknamed 'Katter Country'.^[2] A few Labor pockets still exist in Mount Isa, which was represented by Labor at the state level as late as 2012, as well as around Cairns and Townsville. However, they are no match for the heavily conservative bent of the rest of the seat, which is now considered one of the most overall conservative in Australia.

Besides the Katters, other prominent members includeCharles McDonald, the first LaborSpeaker of the Australian House of Representatives, andBill Riordan, a minister in theChifley government.

Darby Riordan held the seat from1929 until his death in 1936. His nephew,Bill, won the seat at the ensuingby-election and held it until his retirement in 1966. Bob Katter Sr. won it in the1966 Coalition landslide, holding it until 1990. His son and current member, Bob Jr. defeated his father's successor,Rob Hulls, in1993. Hulls would later become Deputy Premier of Victoria.

At the2013 election, sitting member Bob Jr. faced his first serious contest in two decades. He had gone into the election holding Kennedy with a margin of 18 per cent, making Kennedy the second-safest seat in Australia. However,Liberal National candidate Noeline Ikin was well ahead on the primary vote by 10,000 votes. Katter narrowly pulled through and won another term on Labor preferences. However, he suffered a swing of 17 per cent, reducing his majority to only 2.19 per cent.^[3]

Katter did not however face a rematch against Ikin at the2016 election due to her having a brain tumour which forced her out of the election.^[4] (The tumour ultimately claimed Ikin's life in 2017.^[5])At that election, Katter picked up a swing of almost nine per cent, making it a safe seat once again.

Kennedy was one of the 17 (out of 150) electorates that voted ‘no’ in theAustralian Marriage Law Postal Survey.^[6]

Image		Member	Party	Term	Notes
		Charles McDonald (1860–1925)	Labor	30 March 1901 – 13 November 1925	Previously held theLegislative Assembly of Queensland seat ofFlinders. Served asSpeaker during theFisher andHughes Governments. Died in office the day before the1925 federal election
		Grosvenor Francis (1873–1944)	Nationalist	14 November 1925 – 12 October 1929	Lost seat
		Darby Riordan (1886–1936)	Labor	12 October 1929 – 15 October 1936	Previously held theLegislative Assembly of Queensland seat ofBurke. Died in office. Nephew wasBill Riordan
		Bill Riordan (1908–1973)		12 December 1936 – 31 October 1966	Served as minister underChifley. Retired. Uncle wasDarby Riordan
		Bob Katter Sr. (1918–1990)	Country	26 November 1966 – 2 May 1975	Served as minister underMcMahon. Retired. Son isBob Katter Jr.
			National Country	2 May 1975 – 16 October 1982
			Nationals	16 October 1982 – 19 February 1990
		Rob Hulls (1957–)	Labor	24 March 1990 – 13 March 1993	Lost seat. Later elected to theVictorian Legislative Assembly seat ofNiddrie in1996
		Bob Katter Jr. (1945–)	Nationals	13 March 1993 – 9 July 2001	Previously held theLegislative Assembly of Queensland seat ofFlinders. Incumbent. Father wasBob Katter Sr.
			Independent	9 July 2001 – 5 June 2011
			Katter's Australian	5 June 2011 – present

• Division of Kennedy (Qld) —Australian Electoral Commission

19°38′02″S142°05′20″E / 19.634°S 142.089°E /-19.634; 142.089

• Electoral divisions of Australia
• Electoral divisions of Australia in Queensland
• Constituencies established in 1901
• 1901 establishments in Australia
• Federal politics in Queensland
• Far North Queensland
• North West Queensland

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