How Katter lost his way. To work

2 weeks ago 3

Opinion

September 2, 2025 — 3.53pm

It’s not even that Bob Katter, a not-proud man of Lebanese descent, is someone who abuses journalists and holds objectionable values; it also turns out that, in my view, he’s not too conscientious about his job.

You’ll remember that last week Katter took Nine reporter Josh Bavas to task. Why? Bavas had the temerity to ask Katter why he was promoting those hateful rallies on the weekend. Why was the politician anti-immigration when he himself was a product of immigration? All good questions. And how did Katter respond?

Bob Katter confronts Nine News reporter Josh Bavas in Brisbane.

He responded with threats of violence:“I punch blokes in the mouth for saying that.”

And how did his gormless son Robbie Katter, state representative for the seat of Traeger, respond when asked about his father’s revolting behaviour? Katter jnr: “If you keep poking the bear sometimes, you know, it’s no big shock that you get an aggressive response.”

Please do not tell me that Katter jnr is not his father’s keeper. He is if the two of them share a political party. The party “benefits” from this publicity. If you are a leader, act like a leader. Take responsibility for your member.

Katter snr, 80, was at the press conference to talk about his support of the anti-migration rallies on the weekend. He was not, however, at his job in federal parliament. He is often not at his job in federal parliament. To do your job well, you need to turn up. And that’s particularly true if you are a member of parliament. There are no work from home options. And in Katter’s case, he doesn’t turn up. Not now. Not ever (OK, slight exaggeration). The fabulous They Vote For You website, supported by Open Australia, details how every politician in Australia votes on every single piece of legislation if there is a division called. It also serves as a roll call. (It’s not perfect, and sometimes it’s not up-to-date but then, yeah, me neither.)

They Vote For You tells me that Katter has been absent 37 per cent of the time overall. Last year, he was absent from divisions more than 70 per cent of the time. I’ll tell you what else you need to do. You need to do all the relevant paperwork. Katter hasn’t filed his register of interests declaration yet, even though it’s been well over 28 days since being sworn in.

Bob Katter’s attendance record in parliament is poor. Last year, he was absent from divisions more than 70 per cent of the time.

What about this year? Has not turned up to a single vote when a division has been called. Not one. Guessing the 37 per cent is an overview of his decades and decades in parliament. He’s clearly lost interest, and someone should tell the voters of Kennedy who have voted for this chimera on 11 occasions. I asked Pat Leslie, a surviving researcher at the Australian National University, who has analysed how independent politicians vote.

Leslie has an excellent description of the former leader of the Katter’s Australia Party: “His voting record is all over the place. He sees where the crossbench is going to sit and he moves to the opposite side. He is a natural contrarian. He occupies an ideological and voting position which is nowhere near anyone else in the House of Representatives.”

I decided to ask (some of) the voters in Kennedy. Now some were too shy. Some of those were in support of Katter’s attitudes but didn’t want me to use what they said. And one pointed me to the Catholic church in Mount Isa, which is holding its annual multicultural festival this weekend. That was the real vibe of Kennedy. Father Mick Lowcock, the priest at the Good Shepherd Parish in Mount Isa, says he’s been there 33 years. And the festival has been going for 25 of those years.

Diplomatically, he says: “The festival gives a great opportunity to show how harmonious we are … we are Asian, Pacific, African and South American.” Plus the Catholic school registered kids from 57 different nationalities. I was too shy to ask how many were Lebanese. There has never been, says Father Mick, any hint of racism or disharmony.

Another local, Georgia Heath, a member of the Country Women’s Association and former Labor candidate for Robbie Katter’s seat, was pretty appalled by Katter snr’s behaviour. “It is not normal and not how people in Mount Isa would respond to that. Bob has said things over many years that have created or inflamed situations. It is not reflective of the community values we have.”

The local newspaper’s editor and owner, Matt Nicholls, who has known Katter professionally forever, wasn’t shocked.

“Not an unexpected one, to be honest. We are seeing more and more anger out of him now,” said Nicholls.

I’m embarrassed by Katter’s behaviour because of the way he tried to avoid his Lebanese background. His grandfather arrived in 1898 (a full 53 years before my folks got here). Why is that? Didn’t like Grandpa? Whatever triggered him (and seriously, pull yourself together), just be an adult. We’ve all got relatives we’d rather not be related to – and I’m sure ethnicity is not the real issue.

I asked the president of the Australian Lebanese Chamber of Commerce, Salim Nicolas, what he thought about the role of Lebanese migrants here. Nicolas reminded me of the huge role Australians of Lebanese descent have played in Australia (my own personal fave is Marie Bashir, former governor of NSW, eminent psychiatrist, university chancellor, an absolute queen). And he also could not understand why some reject their immigrant background. As Nicolas pointed out: “The First Fleet was a kind of migration. The whole world is based on migration from one place to another.”

Anyhow, I tried to find out how Josh Bavas was holding up after being abused by a member of parliament. Shutters are down on this topic in the Nine offices, publishers of this masthead. Bavas is just a youngster at 37, but his colleagues tell me he turns up for work every day. In stark contrast to Bob Katter. I asked Pat Leslie of ANU to check out Katter’s attendance, and he did that manually.

“He hasn’t voted yet up to yesterday. As for the last parliament, his attendance rate was 31.4 per cent, and he has not attended a division since November 27, 2024.”

I’ll tell you what we need rallies against – bludger politicians.

Jenna Price is a regular columnist.

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