What to expect from KAP’s next four years in parliament

With the LNP firmly in control after Queensland’s election, KAP leader Robbie Katter isn’t interested in playing power games. Instead, his party is sharpening its focus on defending the primary industries. Read more.

KAP leader and member for Traeger Robbie Katter in Mount Isa for his 2024 State Election party. Photo: Joanna Giemza-Meehan.

KAP leader Robbie Katter said the minor party no longer would be thinking about a balance of power that could hold the major LNP government to ransom, as it maintains focus on issues to do with primary resource production seen as under threat.

And with the federal election to be held next year, Mr Katter said there were no plans to replace his 79-year-old father Bob for the North Queensland seat of Kennedy.

“I’m not thinking about that at the moment, Dad’s still fully functional there in the role, and while he’s there it’s his as long as he wants it,” Mr Katter said.

“You know, like every party, we’ve got to look at succession in all areas, and it’s not like we haven’t thought about it and don’t think about it but we’re right where we are right now, thank you.”

Bob Katter, has been the Federal Kennedy MP for 31 years, and he has indicated he will remain in his position until he dies.

“I mean, do I just shoulder a rifle and let everyone else fight the battle, do I, when the person most qualified to fight the battle is, in fact, me?” Mr Katter Snr told this masthead last year.

While Mr Katter had hopes Steven Lesina could win the seat of Mulgrave to the south of Cairns, through the preferences of a large field of 10 candidates, it was not anywhere near the amount of seats he had wanted to be able to influence the major parties.

There had been strong hopes within the party that the KAP could win two of the Townsville-based seats based on preferences, as a strong swing to the LNP seemed to have levelled out days before the election.

KAP was guaranteed to keep its three core seats of Traeger, Hinchinbrook and Hill, and despite the LNP having a sizeable lead Mr Katter was optimistic it could also keep Mirani.

The party’s hopes for expansion across North Queensland through the angry regional voter did not come to fruition.

“There was a lot of Queenslanders, I think, were generally disengaged from politics (that) just wanted to get rid of Labor, and the opposite to that is voting for Liberal,” Mr Katter said.

“And I don’t think they wanted to engage much beyond that at all.

Kennedy MP Bob Katter plants a potato at Doomadgee using an ice cream scoop as his shovel. In the past Mr Katter has expressed concern for the bureaucracy that has prevented food from being allowed to grow in the Indigenous communities he represents. Picture: Brian Cassey

“They mainly disengage beyond that from any other conversations, and that’s made it very hard for anyone outside of that space or the two majors to try and, you know, grab people’s attention.”

Mr Katter said the new LNP government “can’t be too cocky” because it did not get the high numbers that were expected.

“They would do well to listen to some effective MPs that have maintained really big solid margins who are connected up here in North Queensland that clearly will have answers to give them and how we move forward.”

The party could not hope to achieve balance of power.

“No, I don’t think too much about that,” Mr Katter said.

“We just keep our focus very much on promoting North Queensland policy and doing that well, and beyond that, we can’t sort of think about it too much.

“I think we’ve got a really big part to play in the parliament going forward to try and provide some balance in the state for equity in North Queensland.”

The Traeger MP needed to focus on the economy of his hometown of Mount Isa, which was facing a loss of 1200 Glencore copper mine workers being made redundant by mid-2025.

But he also would continue to advocate for road infrastructure and flood mitigation for Gulf of Carpentaria communities, particularly for places such as Burketown that could be flooded in for months at a time during the monsoon season.

At a party level, Mr Katter would consider introducing policies around protecting primary industries and ethical issues aligned with its core values.

“A lot of stuff that’s gone in before would be a good start,” he said.

“It would be interesting to test the new parliament on commercial fishing, I’ve got my Babies Born Alive bill to put back in, Blue Card bill to put back in, and we might, we could, test reef regulations, vegetation management.

“It would be good to test something on water allocations and water infrastructure.”