Katter Party loses bid to pulp ballot papers for Queensland election

BOB Katter has ended his bid to force Queensland electoral authorities to pulp the ballot paper for the March 24 poll after it was rejected in court.

Bob Katter

BOB Katter has dropped his controversial court action to force Queensland electoral authorities to pulp the ballot paper for the March 24 state election.

His claim that the abbreviating of his party’s name, Katter’s Australian Party, on ballot papers was unconstitutional has been dismissed by Queensland’s highest court, the Court of Appeal.

The legal action was dropped by consent between KAP and the Queensland Electoral Commission this morning, after the ruling was handed down in Brisbane.

KAP will pay the costs of the electoral commission.

The maverick federal Independent took the ECQ to court after it followed state electoral law and used KAP’s registered abbreviation, The Australian Party, on the ballot paper. Mr Katter had applied to register the abbreviation in January, but said he did not realise it would turn up on ballot papers.

Pre-poll voting is now underway. Had the decision gone Mr Katter’s way it may have disrupted the general election on Saturday fortnight.

Mr Katter has pinned his party's electoral hopes on "the Wally Lewis effect" after all but ruling out a High Court challenge to the decision.

Speaking in Kingaroy, Mr Katter said political forces were conspiring to entrench the two-party system.

"They are determined that you only have a Woolworths and Coles in politics. The system has determined that that will happen," he said.

"I tell you, you're making a mistake because the people in this country have always ended up winning, in the end."

Mr Katter said "it was going the way" that a High Court challenge would chew up more campaign funds and take over a month to run its course.

"Just remember, if we were the underdogs before, we're hugely the underdogs now," he said.

Mr Katter likened the setback to Wally Lewis' controversial sin-binning from a State of Origin rugby league match in 1988.

"The Wally Lewis effect, when he was sent off, doom and gloom and hopelessness descended upon the stadium and upon the team. But you know what happened? That team got so mad at the injustice, so infuriated, that they played twice as well as was humanly possible for them to play. And they ended up winning that game."

Mr Katter made it clear he was not equating himself to Lewis, a "great Australian" whose bootstraps "he was not fit to tie".