Bob Katter

Katter (left) at a Queensland Day ceremony with Mike Reynolds (right) c. 1986.

Katter was born in Cloncurry, Queensland, the son of Robert Cummin Katter, the member for Kennedy from 1966 to 1990, and his wife, Mabel. His paternal grandparents went to Cloncurry in a stage coach around 1900. Katter's paternal grandfather was a Lebanese migrant, who owned clothing stores throughout north Queensland. His father, Bob Katter Sr., was an Australian politician who was in the House of Representatives from 1966 to 1990, representing the National Party (originally named the Country Party).

Growing up in Cloncurry, Katter's family owned a clothing shop and managed a local cinema. He was one of only six at his school who finished year 12.[5]

Katter attended the University 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[6] and St Leo's College.[7] As a university student, Katter pelted the Beatles with rotten eggs during their 1964 tour of Australia, declaring in a later meeting with band that he undertook this as "an intellectual reaction against Beatlemania".[8] He also served in the Citizens Military Forces.

Returning to Cloncurry, he worked in his family's businesses, and as a "labourer in the Mt Isa Mines".[5][9]

Katter's father was a member of the Australian 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 a Country Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland from 1974 to 1992, representing Flinders 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 in that year's election.[1]

While in the Queensland Parliament, Katter junior was a strong supporter of Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen, though he remained in cabinet under Mike Ahern, ultimately resigning from Cabinet along with Russell Cooper. He was on the backbench. Then appointed again to Cabinet in the traditional number two position of Mines & Energy. This was under the Bjelke-Petersen's factions restoration to power.

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 the 1993 federal election, facing his father's successor, Labor's Rob Hulls. Despite name recognition, Katter trailed Hulls for most of the night. On the eighth count, a Liberal candidate's preferences flowed overwhelmingly to Katter, allowing him to defeat Hulls by 4,000 votes.[10] He would not face another contest nearly that close for two decades.

In 1994, Katter advocated against federal privacy laws[11] that bypassed Tasmania's anti-gay laws,[12] claiming the government was "helping the spread of AIDS" and legitimizing "homosexual behavior". He also believed the laws jeopardized states' rights in Australia.[13]

Katter was re-elected with a large swing in 1996, and was re-elected almost as easily in 1998.[14] 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 to neoliberalism and social liberalism.[15] In 2001, he resigned from the National Party and easily retained his seat as an independent at the general elections of 2001, 2004, 2007 and 2010, each time ending up with a percentage vote in the high sixties after preferences were distributed.[16][17][18][19]

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[20] decided to support a Labor government. Katter presented his 20 points document and asked the major parties to respond before deciding which party he would support.[21] 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.[22]

On 5 June 2011, Katter launched a new political party, Katter's Australian Party, which he said would "unashamedly represent agriculture".[23] He made headlines after singing to his party's candidates during a meeting on 17 October 2011, saying it was his "election jingle".[24]

In the 2013 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 the Liberal National party.[25][26]

In the 2016 election, Katter retained his seat of Kennedy, with an increased swing of 8.93 points toward him.[27]

On 15 August 2017 Katter announced that the Turnbull government could not take his support for granted in the wake of the 2017 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 Minister Barnaby Joyce, lost his seat, the Coalition could not count on his support for confidence and supply.[28]

In November 2018, Katter secured funds for three inland dam-irrigation schemes in North Queensland.[29]

In the 2019 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.[30] In the 2022 election, he was re-elected again, and became the Father of the Australian House of Representatives following the retirement of Kevin Andrews.

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Conservatism in Australia
Themes Agrarianism Economic liberalism Federalism Free market Free trade Limited government Monarchism Nationalism Property rights Protectionism Rule of law
Intellectuals Blainey Coleman Donnelly Harries Henderson Melluish Minogue Santamaria Stove Windschuttle
Jurists Allan Barton Callinan Craven Finnis Flint Gleeson Hayne Kiefel Wood
Commentators Akerman Albrechtsen Bolt Credlin Dean Devine (Frank) Devine (Miranda) Hadley Jones Kenny Kerr McGuinness Mundine Murray van Onselen Price Vanstone
Politicians Abbott Barton Bernardi Bonner Canavan Petersen Dutton Fraser Gorton Hanson Holt Howard Joyce Katter Lyons Menzies Morrison Mundine Newman Perrottet Price Reid Vanstone
Parties Active Australian Christians Democratic Labour Party Family First (2021) Katter's Australian Liberal (Coalition) National (Coalition) Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Defunct Christian Democratic Party Commonwealth Liberal Party Conservatives Conservative Party Family First (2002) Liberal (Queensland) National (Queensland) National Defence League Nationalist Party
Organisations Australian Academy of Art National Civic Council CPAC Australia
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Katter is known as an unabashed social conservative and agrarian socialist.[31] His views on economic matters echo "Old Labor" policy as it was before the Australian Labor Party split of 1955 as he opposes privatisation and economic deregulation and strongly supports traditional Country Party statutory marketing. The sobriquet 'Mad Katter' was coined by his opponents to describe his nationalistic developmentalism.[32][33][34] He has a very sporadic attendance record in parliament, and by the end of 2019 had only attended 42% of votes on the floor of parliament, the lowest of any member of parliament.[35]

As of 2020, Katter described himself as belonging to the "hard left," citing his continuing membership of the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union.[36][9] In a 2022 interview with The Chaser, Katter claimed that he had never pledged allegiance to the Monarch of the United Kingdom when entering parliament.[37]

Katter occasionally identifies as being an Aboriginal Australian and has described himself as a blackfella in federal parliament, in interviews, during television appearances and at public events.[54][55][56][57][58] Katter claims that in his youth he was accepted as a member of the Kalkadoon tribe in the Cloncurry area, otherwise known as the "Curry mob", and said he has long since felt a deep connection with Aboriginal people.[55][59]

His son Robbie has been a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly since 2012, representing Mount Isa from 2012 to 2017, and Traeger since 2017.[60] He represents much of the territory that his father represented in state parliament.

• Bob Katter, An Incredible Race of People: A Passionate History of Australia (Millers Point, New South Wales: Murdoch Books Australia, 2012).

• Politics of Queensland

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bob Katter.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Bob Katter.

• Maiden Speech – Australian House of Representatives (6 May 1993), aph.gov.au