Meet the Cross-Benchers, pt 1: Bob Katter

It appears that covering 11 minor parties in 12 days wasn’t enough.  A hung parliament requires a closer look at the six Cross-Benchers who’ll have such a large say in the selection and functioning of the next Australian Government.  I’ll look at each in turn – starting with long-serving North Queensland MP Bob Katter.

The ‘Force from the North’ promises some interesting times.

‘Eccentric’.  ‘Outspoken’.  ‘Larrikin’.  ‘Larger than life’.  ‘Maverick’.

It’s unlikely there’s been an Australian politician who’s been referenced in those terms as often as the MP for Kennedy, Bob Katter.  Katter romped it in on Saturday, and, as anyone who watched his performance on the 7:30 Report on Sunday can attest, he’s vocal, opinionated, and committed to his constituents.

As with the other Existing Cross-Benchers, Katter was originally a National Party member who left the party in disgust at their acquiescence with deregulation of the dairy and sugar industries.  He claims that dairy deregulation caused increased prices for consumers and reduced prices for producers, while tariff reduction on sugar halved domestic prices.  When speaking on this issue on Sunday’s 7:30 Report Katter’s indignation was palpable – for this voice of the bush the logic behind harming the livelihood of farmers was incomprehensible.

Katter goes into hung parliament negotiations with a clear brief – to transform the fortunes of rural Australia.  He argues that since Whitlam both major parties have conspired in policies which privilege big business and urban interests over the needs of rural communities.  As a consequence, rural Australia is closing down, through depopulation of the inland areas of Australia to such an extent, he argues, that the Australian rural population is barely higher than the pre-European Aboriginal population.

To fix this, Katter suggests that we need a ‘different paradigm for Australia’ which centres around material support and greater respect for rural areas and populations.  Agriculture can be supported by the reintroduction of widespread tariffs, with Katter suggesting a 15% tariff on all imported products. The imports of certain agricultural products, such as bananas form the Phillippines, would be banned, and efforts would be made the reduce the market power of Coles and Woolworths.  Katter has stated that the concern over congestion has left him “burning up with rage.”  Greater support for rural areas will encourage the population to return to rural and regional Australia in numbers sufficient enough to ease the congestion concerns around Western Sydney and South-East Queensland.

Katter describes himself as anti-climate change, because it is rubbish.  In a parliamentary debate, Katter has likened the effect of increased carbon to the impact achieved by covering a house in chicken wire, and argued that because a stone thrown at a rock or a tree won’t bounce straight back there is no chance that CO2 will trap heat in the atmosphere.   To say that he won’t support an ETS is a massive understatement – in fact Katter derides it as merely a ruse which will mean “big companies will plant millions of trees and they’ll all die” in order to get carbon credits.

But he has environmental concerns, and believes that “we should take a bit of a pull on the reins here.”  Katter spruiks the environmental and economic advantages of ethanol-powered cars, which is an obvious preference for an MP whose electorate is dominated by the sugar industry.  He worries about the impact of carbon on ocean food chains, and believes that a ‘clean energy corridor’ through his NW Queensland seat would be able to connect wind and solar power generators to the national power grid.  This typifies a belief in the connection between environmental concerns and development potential which is at it’s strongest with his endorsement of the Bradfield Scheme, which would turn the monsoonal rivers of Australia’s North inland towards Lake Eyre.  Katter has argued that the plan could transform 7% of Australia’s water and 2% of the land into a river system which could support 60 million people.

In contrast, Katter’s contempt for the values of the urban ruling classes is fuelled by his outrage at policies which he believes put rural traditions at risk.  Katter bemoans the fact that country people can no longer hunt, fish, camp or even ‘boil the billy’. For Katter, the risk is that ‘we’ve got kids being turned into sooks and fat computer addicts who live in cyber-space.  They’re not allowed to have air rifles and can’t go fishing in some parts of the country.  What are they supposed to do?’

Katter himself can be called a number of things, but the last thing you could call him was a computer addict.  In fact, Katter refused to use one himself.  However he is a big proponent of the National Broadband Network as long as it’s in public hands.

Could he be called a racist?  Anytime a country MP is regularly described as a ‘maverick’ it appears a fair question.  But Katter’s brand of agrarian socialism is built more on redressing a perceived urban-rural divide than on ethnic barriers.  Katter has said Australia is ‘a vanishing race, and we’re burying our identity under the waves of others coming in from overseas’, shares 1960′s PM Jack McEwen’s belief that ‘unless we occupy it [Australia], it will be taken off us’, and has proposed deploying cables in order to stop the arrival of refugees in boats.  However he is widely respected among the many Aboriginal communities in his electorate.

How will Katter work in the new parliament?  Despite his rough-and-ready persona he’s a polished politicians with an ability to make relationships.  He gets along very well with the other two Existing Cross-Benchers, and it’s easy to see him having a lot in common with WA National Tony Crook.  He has even found enough common ground over food security and the retail sector with the Greens to envisage a some form of cooperation – although the fact he describes himself as the ‘opposite of whatever a greenie is’ means the limitations of this quickly become clear.

But overall, Katter is interested in strengthening rural Australia, and especially his sprawling North Queensland electorate.  He claims to have ‘worked with people that I’ve loathed and detested’ in his pursuit of a good outcome and has declared that in 2010 ‘he couldn’t care less’ who wins, although his description of Barnaby Joyce as a ‘piece of incredible unfortunateness’ means the Queensland Senator might be left on the bench in negotiations.

For Katter, this hung parliament provides a once-in-a-lifetime to change the prospects of rural Australia – to deliver a paradigm shift, in the man’s own words.  While it will take a formulated and holistic rural development plan rather than sums of money to get his support, don’t expect Katter’s vote to come cheaply.