Katter Calls One Nation a 'Stalking Horse for the Libs'

Federal MP Bob Katter has taken aim at One Nation, accusing the minor party of acting as a political vehicle for the Liberal Party rather than a genuine force for change, in a wide-ranging interview on 4BC Brisbane radio.

Australia's longest-serving member of parliament, the 79-year-old member for Kennedy, was invited into the studio after a satirical clip by The Betoota Advocate went viral online. The parody depicted someone reading an exaggerated version of a Katter speech criticising Pauline Hanson's stance on multiculturalism. When asked whether he had delivered the address, Katter was characteristically blunt. "No," he said, adding with a laugh that Betoota was "inclined to exaggerate a bit."

But the sentiment behind the satire clearly struck a chord. Katter said he admired how the clip captured the layered migration history of North Queensland — the Italian cane cutters, the Greek and Chinese communities who settled the region over more than a century. "In North Queensland we're colourblind," he said. "We sort of have to be because there's all the little parts of the rainbow up there. And we've lived together for 150 years."

Asked directly about Hanson's monoculturalist platform, Katter delivered one of his trademark one-liners: "I couldn't spell it and I most certainly can't pronounce it, but I suspect I wouldn't like it."

He reserved his sharpest criticism for One Nation's preferencing decisions, arguing the party's electoral behaviour contradicts its anti-establishment pitch. "They have taken their preferences off us and give them to the Liberal Party," Katter said. "So don't say you're trying to change Australia when you in fact are reinforcing it. You'll get a massive vote but you won't get any seats — and that vote will go to the Liberal Party. You're just a stalking horse for the Libs."

Katter also turned to Australian history, drawing on his credentials as a published historian. He spoke at length about the Kalkadoon people of Northwest Queensland, whose warriors held colonial forces at bay for 25 years, and about the role of Christian missionaries in protecting millions of acres of Aboriginal land. He argued that First Nations communities in North Queensland are today among the most land-rich peoples on the planet as a result.

The interview ranged to a pointed call for a rethink of whose faces appear on Australian currency. Katter questioned why King Charles — whom he described as having never held a job — should feature on Australian coins, suggesting figures like Kokoda veteran Ralph Honner, Kalkadoon leader Tjapukai, or Queensland-born World War One general Sir William Glasgow were far more deserving of the honour. "It's not funny, Albo," he said of the Prime Minister's apparent amusement at the suggestion.

Katter conceded he does not follow One Nation's internal workings closely, but said the preference trail tells the real story. His Katter's Australian Party has long positioned itself as the authentic rural alternative — a tradition he traces back to the old Country Party roots that shaped figures like his father and grandfather before him.