Bob Katter | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 1993 | |
| Father of the House | |
| Assumed office 11 April 2022 | |
| Preceded by | Kevin Andrews |
| Member of theAustralian Parliament forKennedy | |
| Assumed office 13 March 1993 | |
| Preceded by | Rob Hulls |
| Leader of theKatter's Australian Party | |
| In office 5 June 2011 – 3 February 2020 | |
| Preceded by | Party established |
| Succeeded by | Robbie Katter |
| Member of theQueensland Parliament forFlinders | |
| In office 7 December 1974 – 25 August 1992 | |
| Preceded by | Bill Longeran |
| Succeeded by | Seat abolished |
| Minister for Northern Development; Community Services & Indigenous Affairs | |
| In office 7 November 1983 – 25 September 1989 | |
| Premier | Joh Bjelke-Petersen Mike Ahern Russell Cooper |
| Preceded by | Thomas Gilmore |
| Succeeded by | Martin Tenni |
| Minister for Mines and Energy | |
| In office 25 September 1989 – 7 December 1989 | |
| Premier | Russell Cooper |
| Preceded by | Martin Tenni |
| Succeeded by | Thomas Gilmore Tony McGrady |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Robert Bellarmine Carl Katter (1945-05-22)22 May 1945 (age 79) Cloncurry, Queensland, Australia |
| Political party | Katter's Australian (since 2011) |
| Other political affiliations | National (until 2001) Independent (2001–2011) |
| Relations | Carl Katter (half-brother) Alex Douglas (nephew) Kim Hames (cousin) SeeKatter family |
| Children | Robbie |
| Parent(s) | Bob Katter Sr. Mabel Horn |
| Residence(s) | Charters Towers, Queensland, Australia |
| Education | Mount Carmel College St Columba Catholic College |
| Alma mater | University of Queensland |
| Occupation | Member of Parliament - Insurance, mining and cattle interests (Self-employed) |
| Profession | Farmer,Labourer andPolitician |
| Website | www |
| Military service | |
| Branch/service | Australian Army Reserve |
| Years of service | 1964–1972[1] |
| Rank | Second Lieutenant |
| Unit | 49th Battalion,Royal Queensland Regiment |
Other offices
| |
Robert Bellarmine Carl Katter (born 22 May 1945) is an Australian politician who has been a member of theHouse of Representatives since 1993.[2][3] He was previously active inQueensland state politics from 1974 to 1992. Katter was a member of theNational Party until 2001, when he left to sit as anindependent. He formed his own party,Katter's Australian Party, in 2011.
Katter was born inCloncurry,Queensland. His father,Bob Katter Sr., was also a politician. Katter was elected to theQueensland Legislative Assembly at the1974 state election, representing theseat of Flinders. He was elevated to cabinet in 1983, underJoh Bjelke-Petersen, and was a government minister until the National Party's defeat at the1989 state election.
Katter left state politics in 1992, and the following year was elected to federal parliament standing in theDivision of Kennedy (his father's old seat). He resigned from the National Party in the lead-up to the2001 federal election, and has since been re-elected four more times as an independent and another four times for his own party.[4] His son,Robbie Katter, is a state MP in Queensland, the third generation of the family to be a member of parliament.[1]
Katter was born on 22 May 1945 inCloncurry, Queensland.[1] He is the one of three children born to Mabel Joan (née Horn) andRobert Cummin Katter; his mother died in 1971 and his father had three more children with his second wife, includingCarl.[5]
Katter's father was raised in Cloncurry where he ran a clothing shop and managed a local cinema. He was elected toCloncurry Shire Council in 1946 and to federal parliament in 1966.[5] Katter is of Lebanese descent through his paternal grandfather Carl Robert Katter (originally spelled "Khittar"), who was born inBsharri and immigrated to Australia with his parents in 1898. He was naturalised in 1907, after previously being refused naturalisation under theWhite Australia policy.[6]
Katter received his early education in Cloncurry, where he was one of only six at his school who finished year 12.[7] He attendedMount Carmel College inCharters Towers.[8] He went on to theUniversity of Queensland, where he studied law, but later dropped out without graduating. While at university, Katter was President of the University of Queensland Law Society[9] and St Leo's College.[10] As a university student, Katter peltedthe Beatles with rotten eggs during their1964 tour of Australia, declaring in a later meeting with the band that he undertook this as "an intellectual reaction againstBeatlemania".[11] He also served in theCitizens Military Forces, with the rank ofsecond lieutenant.[1]
Returning to Cloncurry, he worked in his family's businesses, and as a labourer with theMount Isa Mines.[7][12]
Katter's father was a member of theAustralian Labor Party until 1957, when he left during the Labor split of that year. He later joined the Country Party, now the National Party. The younger Katter was aCountry Party member of theLegislative Assembly of Queensland from 1974 to 1992, representingFlinders in north Queensland. He was Minister for Northern Development and Aboriginal and Islander Affairs from 1983 to 1987, Minister for Northern Development, Community Services and Ethnic Affairs from 1987 to 1989, Minister for Community Services and Ethnic Affairs in 1989, Minister for Mines and Energy in 1989, and Minister for Northern and Regional Development for a brief time in 1989 until the Nationals were defeated inthat year's election.[1]
Katter was a strong supporter of Queensland premierJoh Bjelke-Petersen. In August 1989 he abruptly resigned from the cabinet of Bjelke-Petersen's successorMike Ahern, along with fellow cabinet ministersRussell Cooper andPaul Clauson. Their resignation was reportedly an attempt to force Ahern's removal as party leader.[13] Bjelke-Petersen subsequently endorsed Katter to succeed Ahern as leader and premier.[14]
Katter returned to cabinet after only a month, following Cooper's successful ouster of Ahern in September 1989.[15] As mines minister, he was the subject of a no-confidence motion from the Queensland Chamber of Mines in November 1989, following his proposed changes to mining legislation that were perceived as favouring the interests of graziers over mining companies.[16] His term as a minister ended following the government's defeat at the1989 state election.[17]
Following his father's retirement from federal parliament, Katter was an unsuccessful candidate for National Party preselection for the seat of Kennedy prior to the1990 federal election.[18]
Katter did not run for re-election to state Parliament in 1992. He ran as the National candidate in his father's former seat of Kennedy at the1993 federal election, facing his father's successor, Labor'sRob Hulls. Despite name recognition, Katter trailed Hulls for most of the night. On the eighth count, aLiberal candidate's preferences flowed overwhelmingly to Katter, allowing him to defeat Hulls by 4,000 votes.[19] He would not face another contest nearly that close for two decades.
In 1994, Katter advocated against theHuman Rights (Sexual Conduct) Act 1994,[20] a federal law that bypassed Tasmania's anti-gay laws,[21] claiming the government was "helping the spread of AIDS" and legitimizing "homosexual behavior". He also believed the laws jeopardized states' rights in Australia.[22]
Katter was re-elected with a large swing in1996, and was re-elected almost as easily in1998.[23] However, when he transferred to federal politics, he found himself increasingly out of sympathy with the federal Liberal and National parties on economic and social issues, with Katter being opposed toneoliberalism andsocial liberalism.[24]
In 2001, Katter resigned from the National Party and easily retained his seat as an independent at the general elections of2001,2004,2007 and2010, each time ending up with a percentage vote in the high sixties after preferences were distributed.[25][26][27][28]
In the aftermath of the 2010 hung federal election, Katter offered a range of views on the way forward for government. Two other former National Party MPs, both independents from rural electorates,Tony Windsor,Rob Oakeshott[29] decided to support a Labor government. Katter presented his20 points document and asked the major parties to respond before deciding which party he would support.[30] As a result, he broke with Windsor and Oakeshott and supported the Liberal/National Coalition for Government. On 7 September 2010, Katter announced his support for a Liberal/National Party coalition minority government.[31]
On 5 June 2011, Katter launched a new political party,Katter's Australian Party, which he said would "unashamedly represent agriculture".[32] He made headlines after singing to his party's candidates during a meeting on 17 October 2011, saying it was his "election jingle".[33]
In the2013 election, however, Katter faced his first serious contest since his initial run for Kennedy in 1993. He had gone into the election holding the seat with a majority of 18 percent, making it the second-safest seat in Australia. However, reportedly due to anger at his decision to back Kevin Rudd (ALP) for Prime Minister following Julia Gillard's (Prime Minister) live cattle export ban (Rudd, within weeks, reopened the live export market), Katter still suffered a primary-vote swing of over 17 points. His name heavily associated with Rudd. In the end, Katter was re-elected on Labor preferences, suffering a two-party swing of 16 points to theLiberal National party.[34][35]
In the2016 election, Katter retained his seat of Kennedy, with an increased swing of 8.93 points toward him.[36]
On 15 August 2017 Katter announced that theTurnbull government could not take his support for granted in the wake of the2017 Australian parliamentary eligibility crisis, which ensued over concerns that several MPs held dual citizenship and thus may be constitutionally ineligible to be in Parliament. Katter added that if one of the affected MPs, Deputy Prime MinisterBarnaby Joyce, lost his seat, the Coalition could not count on his support for confidence and supply.[37]
In November 2018, Katter secured funds for three inland dam-irrigation schemes in North Queensland.[38]
In the2019 election, Katter was returned to his seat of Kennedy with a swing of 2.9 points towards him, in spite of an unfavourable redistribution of his electorate.[39] In the2022 election, he was re-elected again, and became theFather of the Australian House of Representatives following the retirement ofKevin Andrews.
In July 2024 it was announced that a portrait of Katter may be commissioned and hung in theFederal Parliament.[40]
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Katter is anagrarian socialist andsocial conservative.[41] Like his father, his views on economic matters echo 1950s "Old Labor" policy as it was before the1955 DLP split. He opposesprivatisation and economicderegulation and strongly supports traditional Country Party statutory marketing.[citation needed] In an interview in 1994, he cited his political heroes as ALP figuresJack Lang andTed Theodore and U.S. presidentFranklin D. Roosevelt, but said Lang was ultimately a failure and he was "aiming to be aJohn McEwen".[42] The sobriquet 'Mad Katter' was coined by his opponents to describe his nationalisticdevelopmentalism.[43][44][45]
As of 2020, Katter described himself as belonging to the "hard left," citing his continuing membership of theConstruction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union.[46][12] In a 2022 interview withThe Chaser, Katter claimed that he had never pledged allegiance to theQueen of Australia when entering parliament.[47]
In 1980, Katter seconded a motion byDon Lane calling on the Queensland state government to "protect the lives of unborn Queensland children being killed by abortion".[48]
In 2006, Katter voted against a federal bill which would increase the availability ofabortion drugs.[49]
Katter has opposed enactingclimate change legislation tocontrol emissions.[50] He advocates for measures that reducecarbon footprints.[51] Katter has championed the mandating ofethanol fuel content. He has additionally pioneered protests against imported bananas, and is an opponent of the concentration of the Australiansupermarket industry amongstColes andWoolworths.[52]
An opponent of the tougher gun control laws introduced in the wake of the1996 massacre inPort Arthur, Tasmania, Katter was accused in 2001 of signing a petition promoted by theCitizens Electoral Council (CEC), an organisation that claims thePort Arthur massacre was a conspiracy. He has stated that he always and still believes there was no conspiracy.[53]
In 2017, Katter called for a "Trump-like travel ban" in Australia after a New South Welshman was arrested on terrorism charges.[54] That same year, Katter repeated a pledge used by the far-right organisation "Proud Boys", including that he was "a proud western chauvinist". When asked about the incident when it was publicised in 2019, Katter distanced himself from the group, saying "I don't know who this group is or anything about it".[55][56]
In 1987, as Queensland minister for Aboriginal and Islander affairs, Katter credited the state government with reducingAboriginal deaths in custody by introducing "new detention procedures to divert people arrested for minor offences away from traditional custody after a three-hour cooling off period".[57] In 1989 he opposed installing condom vending machines inAboriginal andTorres Strait Islander communities to reduce the spread ofAIDS, describing the plan instead as an attempt ateugenics, or "racist genocide".[58]
Katter is also an opponent ofvoter identification laws, denouncing the Coalition's proposed introduction of them in 2021 as a racist system that would disenfranchise Aboriginal communities.[59] In 2022, he announced that would not support anIndigenous Voice to Parliament proposal, but did believe that the indigenous people of Australia deserved a referendum on how they should be represented in parliament.[60]
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Katter supportsNorth Queensland statehood.[62]
In November 1989, Katter claimed there were almost no homosexuals in North Queensland. He promised to walk backwards fromBourke across his electorate if they represented more than 0.001 percent of the population.[63][64] Katter also said "mind you, if there are more, then I might take to walking backwards everywhere!" Katter voted against theHuman Rights (Sexual Conduct) Act, 1994 (Cth), which decriminalised homosexuality inTasmania.[65] He does not supportsame-sex marriage.[66] His response to theAustralian Marriage Law Postal Survey result was the subject of international attention, as in response he declared that the issue of crocodiles killing people in North Queensland was more pressing than same-sex marriage. Therefore he declared that "I ain't spending any time on it!" on the latter issue.[67] In December 2017, Katter was one of only four members of the House of Representatives to oppose theMarriage Amendment (Definition and Religious Freedoms) Bill 2017 legalising same-sex marriage in Australia.[68]
Katter occasionallyidentifies as being anAboriginal Australian and has described himself as ablackfella in federal parliament, in interviews, during television appearances and at public events.[69][70][71][72][73] Katter claims that in his youth he was accepted as a member of theKalkadoon tribe in the Cloncurry area, otherwise known as the "Currymob", and said he has long since felt a deep connection with Aboriginal people.[70][74]
His sonRobbie has been a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly since 2012, representingMount Isa from 2012 to 2017, andTraeger since 2017.[75] He represents much of the territory that his father represented in state parliament.
Katter supports theNorth Queensland Cowboys in theNational Rugby League (NRL).[76][77]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)[better source needed]In a vast state governed from the south-east capital of Brisbane, north Queenslanders have historically struggled to have their concerns heard and taken seriously – so much so that federal MP Bob Katter and others have long pushed for north Queensland to become its own state.
One of Bob Katter's greatest passions is the plight of indigenous Australians. "I identify with them. I'm not white and I come from Cloncurry. I'm not too sure where my racial background has come from but I am not going to argue if someone calls me a blackfella. I'm not going to argue that I am not", he says.
"We from Cloncurry call ourselves the Curry mob, we come from the Kalkadoon heritage"
All of my life I have been called a blackfella. I take great pride in being identified that way and have identified that way on numerous occasions. We Cloncurry people call ourselves the 'Curry mob', and there is a bit of everything in the family tree. None of us look too black and none of us look too white!
Asked about land title, he replied: "I identify as a blackfella on occasion and I'll identify this time as a blackfella — we are the most land-rich people on Earth, we blackfellas in Australia, and we are not allowed to use it. We are not allowed to have a title deed..."
While discussing the plight of the Murugappan family from Biloela and refugees policy more broadly, Katter referred to himself as a "Blakfulla". "I come from Cloncurry and I'm dark - I'm one of the Curry mob, you know? We made a hell of a bad mistake 150 years ago, letting you whitefellas in. I don't know that we should make the same mistake again."
"I lived out bush with First Australians in my mining days and many other roles… mustering cattle and those sort of things," he said. "Under the law, if you lived in an area and were accepted as part of a tribe in that area, you legally would be part of the tribe. I claim the law." Mr Katter said he had long felt a deep identification with Aboriginal people. "I come from Cloncurry, we always refer to ourselves as 'Curry mob'," he said. "In that situation, I identified very strongly with my cousin-brothers."
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
| Parliament of Queensland | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member forFlinders 1974–1992 | District abolished |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Minister for Northern Development and Aboriginal and Island Affairs 1983–1986 | Succeeded by Himself |
| Vacant Title next held by Anne Warneras Minister for Aboriginal and Islander Affairs | ||
| Preceded by Himself | Minister for Northern Development and Community Services 1986–1987 | Succeeded by Himself |
| Preceded byas Minister for Community Services | ||
| Preceded by Himself | Minister for Northern Development, Community Services and Ethnic Affairs 1987–1989 | Succeeded by Himself |
| Preceded byas Minister for Ethnic Affairs | Succeeded byas Minister for Northern Development | |
| Preceded by Himself | Minister for Community Services and Ethnic Affairs 1989 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister for Mines and Energy 1989 | Succeeded byas Minister for Mines |
| Succeeded byas Minister for Energy | ||
| Preceded by | Minister for Northern and Regional Development 1989 | Succeeded byas Minister for Regional Development |
| Parliament of Australia | ||
| Preceded by | Member for Kennedy 1993–present | Incumbent |
| Preceded by | Father of the House of Representatives 2022–present | Incumbent |
| Father of the Parliament 2022–present | ||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
