Bob Katter

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The Honourable Bob Katter
Member of the Australian Parliament for Kennedy
Incumbent
Assumed office  13 March 1993
Preceded by	Rob Hulls
Born	22 May 1945 (1945-05-22) (age 64)
Nationality	Australian
Political party	National (1993–2001) Independent (2001– )
Religion	Roman Catholic
Website	BobKatter.com.au

Robert Carl "Bob" Katter (born 22 May 1945) is an Australian federal politician. He has served as a member of the Australian House of Representatives since March 1993, representing the Division of Kennedy, Queensland. Until 2001 he represented the National Party of Australia, but left the party that year and continued to hold the seat as an independent. He was born in Cloncurry, Queensland, of Lebanese descent; the son of Bob Katter, Sr., who was MP for Kennedy from 1966 to 1990. He was an investor in cattle and mining interests before entering politics.

Political career

Katter was a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly from 1974 to 1992. In 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 in 1989.

Katter's father was a member of the Australian Labor Party until 1957, when he left during the Labor split of that year and joined the Queensland Labor Party, which later became part of the Democratic Labor Party. He later joined the Country Party, the forerunner of the National Party. Both Katter and his son retained certain elements of Labor political views from the 1950s, including opposition to privatisation and economic deregulation.

While in the Queensland Parliament, Katter junior was a strong supporter of the right-wing populist politics of Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen. 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. In 2001 he resigned from the National Party and easily retained his seat as an independent at the general elections of 2001 and 2004, each time ending up with almost 70 percent of the vote after preferences were distributed.

He is a vocal critic of Climate Change and has been an opponent against enacting legislations to control emissions. "I mean, if you could imagine 20 or 30 crocodiles up there on the roof, and if all that roof was illumination, and saying that we wouldn't see anything in this room because of a few croco-roaches up there," he continued stating that "Are you telling me seriously that the world is going to warm because there's 400 parts per million of CO2 up there?" ^[1]

References

External links

• Official Biography
• http://www.abc.net.au/news/politics/2001/06/item20010620074657_1.htm