Robert Carl Ignatius Katter (born 3 March 1977) is an Australian politician. He serves as the member of the

Legislative Assembly of Queensland The Legislative Assembly of Queensland is the sole chamber of the unicameral Parliament of Queensland established under the Constitution of Queensland. Elections are held every four years and are done by full preferential voting. The Assembly ...

for Traeger, having previously represented

Mount Isa Mount Isa ( ) is a city in the Gulf Country region of Queensland, Australia. It came into existence because of the vast mineral deposits found in the area. Mount Isa Mines (MIM) is one of the most productive mines in world history, based on co ...

from 2012 to 2017. He is the leader of

Katter's Australian Party Katter's Australian Party (KAP) is an agrarian populist political party in Australia that advocates for agrarian socialist economic policies and conservative social policies. It was founded by Bob Katter, an independent and former National ...

, having taken over from his father

Bob Katter Robert Bellarmine Carl Katter (born 22 May 1945) is an Australian politician who has served as the member of parliament (MP) for the Queensland division of Division of Kennedy, Kennedy since 1993 and Father of the Australian House of Represent ...

in February 2020.

Biography

Early life

Katter was born on 3 March 1977 in

North Queensland North Queensland or the Northern Region is the northern part of the Australian state of Queensland that lies just south of Far North Queensland. Queensland is a massive state, larger than many countries, and its Tropical North Queensland, trop ...

. His father is

, the federal member for Kennedy and founder of Katter's Australian Party, and his grandfather Bob Katter Sr. was also a federal MP. He received a Bachelor of Applied Science in Property Economics from the

Queensland University of Technology The Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is a public university, public research university located in the city of Brisbane in Queensland, Australia. It has two major campuses, a modern city campus in Gardens Point, Brisbane, Gardens Point ...

Early career

Katter started his career as a mine worker in

, before working as a property valuer for fifteen years and running a small business in Mount Isa.

Political career (2012–present)

He won Mount Isa at the 2012 state election, pushing

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

incumbent Betty Kiernan into third place. He capitalised on his family's name recognition in the area. Mount Isa was virtually coextensive with the western portion of his father's federal seat of Kennedy, and much of the eastern portion of the seat was once part of the elder Katter's old state seat of Flinders. After his election to the Legislative Assembly, he became Queensland leader of his father's party, but on 29 November 2012, it was announced that he had been succeeded as leader by Ray Hopper, and would become the party's "parliamentary secretary". Following Hopper's defeat at the 2015 election, Katter once again became state leader. The state electorate of Mount Isa was abolished in 2017, and Katter followed most of his constituents into the new seat of Traeger. The new seat was essentially the northern, more urbanised portion of Katter's former seat, and is based on Mount Isa. The seat was created as a comfortably safe KAP seat, and Katter won it handily. He serves on the boards of the Laura Johnson Home, a retirement home, and the Southern Gulf Catchments, an environmental organisation. In February 2020, he was appointed leader of the Katter's Australian Party. At the 2020 Queensland state election Katter retained his seat of Traeger with 58.85 per cent of first preference votes and 74.72 per cent of the

two-party-preferred vote In Australian politics, the two-party-preferred vote (TPP or 2PP), is the result of an opinion poll or a projection of an election result where preferences are distributed to one of the two major parties, the Labor Party and the Liberal/Nati ...

. At the

2024 Queensland state election The 2024 Queensland state election was held on 26 October 2024 to elect all members to the Legislative Assembly of Queensland pursuant to the ''Constitution (Fixed Term Parliament) Amendment Act 2015''. As a result of the 2016 Queensland term l ...

Katter retained his seat of Traeger.

Political views

Robbie Katter is an agrarian socialist, beginning a speech in the Queensland Parliament in 2017 by saying "The members opposite refer to agrarian socialism as though it is a bad thing. I wear it like a badge

In 2020, Katter called for the federal government to buy back Qantas Airline. In April 2022, Katter said he would move a bill to ban transgender athletes from women's sport in the state. In May 2022, he proposed a motion which was voted down 49 votes to 33. The opposition

Liberal National Party of Queensland The Liberal National Party of Queensland (LNP) is a major conservative political party in Queensland, Australia. It was formed in 2008 by a merger of the Queensland divisions of the Liberal Party and the National Party. In most other states ...

voted with him. Katter advocates for North Queensland statehood. On 22 May 2024, Katter introduced a

motion In physics, motion is when an object changes its position with respect to a reference point in a given time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, speed, and frame of reference to an o ...

in the Queensland Parliament that would separate North Queensland from the rest of the state, and called for a

Referendum A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...

to be held in the North to allow residents to have their say on the matter. Katter claimed that the region was being neglected by the state's South East, particularly in the areas of investment, infrastructure and disaster relief. Katter is anti-abortion and has made a pledge to introduce a Private Members Bill into the post-election 2024 Queensland Parliament.

Personal life

Katter is married to Daisy (née Hatfield), a former journalist. They met when Daisy was working for

WIN Television WIN Television is an Australian television broadcasting, Australian television network owned and operated by WIN Corporation that is based in Wollongong, New South Wales. WIN commenced transmissions on 18 March 1962 as a single television stat ...

in Townsville on an assignment to interview him. They have three children, Peaches Grace Hatfield Katter, born 2020, Rosie Elizabeth Frances Hatfield Katter, born 2021, Georgina Isabella Hatfield Katter, born 2023.

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Katter, Robbie 1977 births Australian people of Irish descent Australian people of Lebanese descent Australian monarchists Katter's Australian Party politicians Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly Living people 21st-century Australian politicians Queensland University of Technology alumni