In late September 2025, Deputy Leader, Nick Dametto stated he would resign from the party, as well as the Queensland Legislative Assembly to contest the upcoming Townsville mayoral by-election as an independent, with the election being held in November. Dametto won the by-election.
The party's application for registration was denied by the Australian Electoral Commission on 17 August 2011, on the grounds that the intended party name ("The Australian Party") was too generic and likely to cause confusion.[26] On 27 September 2011, Katter's Australian Party was registered by the Australian Electoral Commission.[27] Although the party was unsuccessful in registering the shorter party name "The Australian Party" nationally, its simultaneous application to register inQueensland with the abbreviated name succeeded, despite a few public objections.[28]
Under Queensland electoral law the party appears on the state election ballots only under its abbreviated name. To avoid ballot-box party names varying across Australian states, the KAP unsuccessfully appealed to the courts to have ballots reprinted so that the full party name and not the abbreviated one would appear on ballots for the2012 Queensland state election.[29]
Relocation sentencing: in response to highyouth crime and re-offence rates inTownsville and other North Queensland cities, KAP advocates for "relocation sentencing" at the state level, which would temporarily relocate youth offenders to remote areas in North-West Queensland, instead of releasing them back into the community where they offended.[42][43]
Mandatory minimum sentencing for repeat offenders[44]
Minimum three years prison for carjacking and unlawful use of a motor vehicle[44]
Essential services such as airports, water, electricity, gas, health services, road, rail and port networks, public transport and communications should be provided by government.[45]
Opposition to acarbon tax and emission trading schemes.[45]
Support for alternative energy such asethanol and solar energy.[24] This is to "Reduce carbon emissions well beyond any current carbon reducing initiatives planned by the State and Federal Government".[47]
Generally make it easier for law-abiding citizens to own and operate firearms[48]
Revise National Firearms Agreement
Any owner of a farming operation who has demonstrated responsible firearm ownership by holding a current weapons licence of category A, B or higher should have the right to own a category H firearm (handgun)
Implement real-time licensing, allowing permits to be processed at the point of sale rather than manual processing
Government must ensure that all workers, especially farmers, are able to collectively bargain for their own economic interests.[45]
Government must stop the use of457 visas by big business as a means to replace or undermine Australian workers and Australian award pay and conditions.[citation needed]
It is the responsibility of the government to encourage and protect whistle blowers as an important method of discovery of the real health and performance of the public sector; and implement regular, random, independent and external professional audits of the public service sector.[citation needed]
Halt any privatisation and renationalise privatised assets.[24] "Overseas companies owning basic services will need big profits for their shareholders. You would pay for the profits with price hikes to basic services."[49]
Implement "orderly" marketing where industry structures undermine reasonable market power to producers[clarification needed] (as perceived currently in dairy, egg and sugar industries).
Restore individual rights, such as "fishing freely and boiling abilly without a permit".[50]
It is the duty of government to ensure bank lending creates real wealth in terms of improvements of the quality of life for the average Australian.[45]
Prevent the sale of essential assets, public or private, including agricultural land and resource assets, to foreign companies and/or sovereign entities without caveats to protect the national interest.
Government must ensure and limit against corporate monopolisation.[45]
In the2013 federal election, Katter's Australian Party received 1.04% of the nationwide vote in first preferences in thelower house, and 0.89% nationwide in theSenate.[51] Its best performing state was Queensland with 3.75% of the lower-house vote and 2.94% of the Senate vote.
In the2016 federal election, Katter's Australian Party received 0.54% of the nationwide vote in first preferences in thelower house, and 0.38% nationwide in theSenate.[53][54] Bob Katter retained his seat of Kennedy, with a swing of 8.93% towards him.[55] The party's next-best finish was in theDivision of Capricornia, where Laurel Carter polled 7.08 percent of the vote.[56]
On 7 July 2016, while counting for the election was still underway and the final result uncertain, Katter announced that he would provideconfidence and supply to theTurnbull government in the event that it was reduced tominority government.[57] It proved unnecessary, as the Coalition finished with a one-seat majority. In August 2017, during theparliamentary eligibility crisis, Katter announced that he could not guarantee confidence and supply if the government lost its majority.[58]
The party fielded candidates at the2012 Queensland state election.[24] QueenslandIndependent MPRob Messenger had expressed interest in joining the party;[62] however, following the merger with the Queensland Party, Messenger declared he would not join the new party as it intended to run against sitting independents at the election.[63]
On 9 August 2011, Katter's Australian Party announced plans to merge with stateBeaudesert MPAidan McLindon'sQueensland Party, with Katter's Australian Party as the surviving entity. As part of the deal, McLindon became the merged party's leader in Queensland.[64][65]
On 30 October 2011, McLindon was joined byShane Knuth, theLiberal National Party of Queensland (LNP) member forDalrymple. Knuth, who was from the National half of the merger, objected to what he saw as a reduced voice for regional MPs in the merged party, calling it a Liberal takeover even though the merged party was dominated by former Nationals. He was also displeased with a number of tactics adopted by the LNP's organisational wing, such as grilling potential candidates and maintaining files about Labor MPs containing compromising information.[66]
In the2012 Queensland state election, the party contested 76 of the 89 seats in the state legislature.Robbie Katter wonMount Isa—which is virtually coextensive with the western portion of his father's federal seat—while Knuth retained Dalrymple. McLindon was defeated in Beaudesert. Katter claimed that the Electoral Commission's decision not to print his name on the ballot cost the party 8.5% of the vote.[67]
On 25 November 2012, the party was joined byCondamine LNP MPRay Hopper. Like Knuth, Hopper is from the National side of the merger. As Knuth had a year earlier, Hopper claimed that the LNP had been a takeover by the old Liberal Party at the expense of the National Party, and accused the LNP of deliberately purging National influence from the party. Hopper claimed to have spoken to eight other LNP backbenchers who were considering defection.[68] On 29 November Hopper was elected as the party's Queensland state leader.[69]
In the2015 Queensland state election, the party contested 11 of the 89 seats, with Knuth and Katter retaining their seats, but Hopper failed in a bid for the seat ofNanango. Due to the election's close-run result (44 Labor to 42 LNP with either needing 45), KAP was potentially in a situation to choose the government, and met with both parties and published a list of 28 demands.[70] However, as independent MPPeter Wellington elected to support Labor on confidence and supply, this did not proceed further.
The Tasmanian Branch, led byGlenorchy Alderman Jenny Branch-Allen, claimed to have received many expressions of interest by potential candidates for the2013 federal election.[73]
In February 2014, theCountry Alliance announced that it would merge with the Victorian Branch of Katter's Australian Party for the upcoming2014 state election, following confirmation at an extraordinary general meeting of the party. The merged parties plan to contest the election as the "Australian Country Alliance".[76][77]
In 2018, the party contestedthe by-election in theNew South Wales seat ofWentworth, which was triggered by the resignation of formerPrime MinisterMalcolm Turnbull. The party's candidate was Robert Callanan, who received the first place on the ballot paper after the draw.[78] Callanan was later disendorsed over undisclosed former links to abrothel.[79] This was the most recent time the party fielded a candidate outside of Queensland.
A 2019 report revealed that Katter's Australian Party has taken more than $808,760 from pro-gun groups during the 2011-2018 period.[81] The party received the most disclosed pro-gun donations of all Australian political parties.[81]
^abWithers, Rachael (5 September 2024)."Riding in cars with Bob".Crikey.Archived from the original on 26 December 2024. Retrieved21 August 2025.He now runs under Katter's Australian Party, which advocates agrarian socialism and social conservatism, and has three members in Queensland state Parliament, including his son Robbie.
^abBruns, Axel; Highfield, Tim (2013)."Political Networks onTwitter: Tweeting the Queensland state election"(PDF).Information, Communication & Society.16 (5):667–691.doi:10.1080/1369118X.2013.782328.S2CID143208704.Bob Katter, the outspoken Federal Member for Kennedy, in Queensland's north-west, had launched his own party in 2011 to promote agricultural and conservative views; Katter's Australian Party (KAP) subsequently nominated candidates for 76 of the 89 state electorates.
^"2020 Queensland State Election: Member Service Guide"(PDF).Queensland Aboriginal and Islander Health Council. 2020. p. 13.Archived(PDF) from the original on 30 July 2024. Retrieved21 August 2025.KAP ideology is generally viewed as being economically left-wing and socially right-wing.
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