#kap

[keepingitneutral]

KAP, Turnhout, Belgium,

Britt Van Namen

[axvoter]

Blatantly Partisan Party Review XV (federal 2025): Katter’s Australian Party

Running where: QLD. The party is contesting three House divisions: Bob Katter himself for Kennedy, plus candidates in Herbert and Leichhardt, while in the Senate, a candidate is second on a joint ticket with Rennick First for Group G

Prior reviews: federal 2013, federal 2016, federal 2019, federal 2022

What I said before: “For those of us on the left, KAP has a few things to like and a lot to detest.” (federal 2022)

What I think this year: I’ve already covered a bunch of “dontcha know who I am?” cult-of-personality parties, and here is perhaps the most larger-than-life personality of the Australian political scene: the North Queenslander in the big hat, the man who would let a thousand blossoms bloom, part of the parliamentary furniture itself, the one and only Bob Katter.

Now, Bob is a character but he's consistent one, so instead of reprising the greatest hits that I've featured before, I thought I would present you with some history to contextualise him and his electorate. Katter’s seat of Kennedy is a vast one. It stretches from the Coral Sea coast between Cairns and Townsville, across the Great Dividing Range, and through Outback towns such as Charters Towers, Hughenden, and Cloncurry out to Mount Isa, across to the NT border, and up to the shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Bob Katter has seemingly stomped the length and breadth of it to become an enduringly popular local member. Although Kennedy is one of the original 65 electorates from Federation in 1901, Katter is remarkably just the seventh person to hold it.

Kennedy was in Labor hands from 1929 to 1966 while Darby Riordan and then his nephew Bill held the seat, but for the last 59 years it has been a family business for the other side of politics:, a Katter has represented Kennedy for all but 3 years. Bob’s father, Bob Katter Sr, won it for the Country Party (later renamed the Nationals) and held it from 1966 until his death in 1990, while the young fella learned the family business as a state MP from 1974. Bob Jr served as a cabinet minister from 1983 under another larger-than-life Queensland pollie, Joh Bjelke-Petersen, and in August 1989, Sir Joh unsuccessfully endorsed Katter as his successor as premier. Instead, Bob Jr had an annus horribilis: he went into opposition at the December 1989 Queensland state election, his dad died days before the March 1990 federal election, and Kennedy fell to Labor. The new MP, Rob Hulls, however, only got one term representing this sprawling constituency (and yes, Victorian readers with long memories, that is the Rob Hulls, deputy premier to John Brumby in 2007–10; quite the change of scenery!).

Katter shifted to federal parliament at the 1993 election, winning back the seat of dear old dad, and he has held Kennedy ever since. In 2001 he left the Nationals to sit as an independent: he disagreed with the rise of neoliberal economics (good!) and with some of the Coalition’s more socially liberal policies (bad! especially as the Coalition is uhh not very socially liberal!). In 2011, he founded Katter’s Australian Party, which met with very little success outside Queensland at the 2013 and 2016 federal elections and has since focused on winning seats in North Queensland. It really ought to be called Katter's North Queensland Party.

Bob’s son Robbie has been the party leader since 2020, and at state level KAP holds three seats that overlap with the Division of Kennedy. But Bob is the only KAP representative at federal level; ex-One Nation lunatic Fraser Anning briefly joined KAP as a Senator in 2018 but proved to be too barmy even for the Katters. I see little reason to anticipate any change to the party’s representation this year. If you live in Kennedy, you probably know Katter is a strong favourite to retain his seat; if you don’t, I hope the history above helped make this explicable.

What is Bob emphasising in his campaign this year? Well, per the homepage, “KAP = Castle Law”. Yes, their core focus is a fear campaign that “crime in Queensland is out of control” and people have a “right to defend their home against intruders without facing legal consequences”. Look, I spent my teenage years in a conservative Queensland setting where A Current Affair was as serious a source of news as the 7:30 Report, but shooting dead a trespasser in your garden is disproportionate. KAP states that “Under the current law, people must demonstrate they have only used ‘necessary’ force under the ‘reasonable belief’ that the intruder was entering their home to commit a serious crime”. Seems fine to me! But they think that people “cannot always make split-second, measured decisions in moments of crisis”. The existing law as per their own description already accommodates this: a person fiddling with your gate is obviously a different degree of threat to somebody confronting you in your bedroom with a knife, and going out all guns blazing at the former is not "reasonable". KAP's policy is a solution in search of a problem.

Other policies? Still on crime, KAP has a four-step “send ‘em out bush” policy for young offenders that in practice would just make them more resentful. You won’t be surprised to learn that KAP wants harsher sentences in general for youth offending and backs the LNP’s “adult crime = adult time” approach. Turning to energy, KAP want more coal, more gas, and new nuclear. Other infrastructure policies focus mainly on roads and on dams to support agriculture. Unsurprisingly for a party whose largest donors are from the gun lobby, KAP’s approach to firearms is permissive. And maybe one of their odder policies is that “KAP wants flying foxes gone from populated areas” and supports culling them. Did a flying fox steal your dog Bob? Come on man. Three of seven species of flying fox in Australia are listed as vulnerable or endangered.

And, of course, for a party led by a man whose most famous remark is about crocodiles tearing people to pieces in North Queensland, there is a policy that “values human life above crocodiles”. Enjoy. Should this move you, perhaps you might also want to buy an official “let there be a thousand blossoms bloom” shirt. If so, Bob’s got a shop for that. I am not kidding.

Recommendation: Give Katter’s Australian Party a very low preference in the House and a weak or no preference in the Senate.

Website: https://kattersaustralianparty.org.au/

(For the pol nerds: Bob is currently Father of the House, i.e. the longest-serving current MP, but at just over 32 years in office he is not yet in the top ten ever. If the new parliament goes to term and Bob does not retire before the election, he will be either 10th or 11th  on the all-time list depending on the exact day of election. He needs to serve five years from today to get into the top five, 10.5 years to get into the top two, and just shy of twenty years to pass Billy Hughes’ record of 51 years and 213 days. Keep in mind that Bob turns 80 next month. Now, yes, he served 18 years in Queensland’s state parliament, so as of this year he has been in a parliament for half a century, but Billy Hughes served in the NSW parliament for 7 years; to exceed Hughes’ cumulative time, Katter needs to be in office for another 8.7 years)

[stainlesssteellocust]

pen dragon

[beta-lactam-allergic]

So here is Part 1 of me summarising the issues in the QLD state election that's literally tomorrow. In Part 1 we rank where the parties stand on Abortion rights.

First the status quo. Abortion is legal in Queensland & is treated as a medical issue rather than a criminal issue. It can be acquired, no questions asked, up to 22 weeks into a pregnancy. After 22 weeks, you need the approval of two licensed medical practitioners. Safe zones of 150 metres exist around providers to prevent protesters from hassling staff, clients or families of clients.

However, despite this legal right, in practice, it's difficult to obtain an abortion in rural/regional areas. Pregnant individuals often need to travel great distances & spend money they may not have on accommodation & fuel, to get access to the nearest provider. Someone in Mt. Isa might need to travel to either Emerald (a 12 hour car trip or 4 & a half hour plane trip) or Cairns (12 & a half hour car ride or 2 hour plane trip) to get access to a provider. A person in Charleville would need to travel over 5 & a half hours to Emerald or 8 hours to Gladstone/Rockhampton. If you live in Weipa, hope you can afford the 9 & a half hour car ride or 1 & a half hour plane trip to Cairns. Mt Isa should be big enough for it's own clinic. Charleville is smaller, but you could place a provider in Roma, which is only 3 hours away rather than 8 hours. Note that I only listed one-way trips, so realistically, you need to double all travel times listed as people need to get back home.

For anyone amazed by the time listed to travel places. This is normal in QLD. Everything is far away. Our state is big. A person travelling from Weipa to Cairns is going southeast while someone going from Mt Isa to Cairns is going north-east.

A trip from Weipa to Brisbane is 29 hours driving assuming no breaks (please don't try that). There's a train connecting Mt Isa to Brisbane that takes 28 hours for those unwilling to drive a bit over 20 hours (assuming no breaks). Realistically, almost everyone travelling from Weipa, Cairns, Mt Isa, Birdsville or even Mackay to Brisbane is taking a plane unless they're a Gray nomad.

Part 1 - Abortion

So this is ranked from worse to best

Worse = KAP (Katter's Australia Party), Family First.

These two parties both openly want to recriminalise abortion. Yes, that "r" isn't a typo. The KAP & Family First have it in their party platforms that they both seek to wind back the clock & make it a crime again.

I assume they aren't thinking of merely winding back to 2017, when abortion was technically in the criminal code, but it wasn't enforced. More likely they want to turn back to the 1970s-1980s where under Joh Bjelke-Petersen the criminal provisions that were only technically repealed in 2018 were actually enforced.

Of these two, the KAP are by far the bigger threat. They have 4 MPs, none of whom are likely to lose their seats, with an outside chance of gaining a fifth seat. Meanwhile, Family First only matter for preference flows (we have preferential voting here, so voting for parties that can't win a seat in their own right isn't the waste of time it would be in the USA).

Moreover, the KAP have announced that they will put up a private member's bill to recriminalise abortion immediately after the new parliament is sworn in. Have I mentioned all the KAP MPs are cisgender men. I should mention that.

Team Sneaky = LNP

The likely victors of tomorrow's election. The talk is about if the ALP can ring-fence Brisbane or not. No one is pretending that the towns of Cairns (3 seats) , Townsville (4 seats), Gladstone, Mackay, Rockhampton or Harvey Bay (each of these is 1 seat) are staying in the ALP fold. As the LNP are the likely victors of all but Rockhampton (where Independent Margaret Strelow has a good shot), they will form government. Therefore, the LNP will likely decide abortion access insurance state for the next 4 years.

The LNP have gone for plausible deniability by stating that they won't introduce a bill to recriminalise abortion. However, that doesn't matter as we know the KAP is introducing that bill instead. What they have is a so-called "conscious vote" on abortion.

It's a fact that 93% of LNP members voted against legalisation in 2018. That 93% includes the current Opposition Leader, David Crisafulli. We also know that quite a few of the new candidates in winnable seats are anti-choice. A conscious vote in an LNP majority government means that even if 1-3 members vote to keep the existing laws, the 4 KAP members will be enough to counter that & guarantee that abortion is recriminalised.

The only reason Crisafulli is even trying for plausible deniability is because he knows most voters are pro-choice. Support for abortion rights has remained stable at 75-80% of the population for my entire lifetime. There's a reason enforcement ended well before the official decriminalisation in 2018. It would be difficult to find a jury

Status Quo = ALP

So this is where our miracle shot happens & somehow the polls are wrong & the current government is maintained.

Now the status quo is still flawed. I want better. Abortion accessibility shouldn't depend on where in the state you live. A poor person in the regions shouldn't have fewer options than someone in the SEQ or Townsville (even Mackay doesn't have an abortion clinic). But when compared to a prospective recriminalisation, it's necessary to defend what we got now & ask for better afterwards.

Improved Access = AJP & Greens

Both of them promise to expand access. That's the optimal outcome, so we list it here.

I will probably not get around to releasing Parts 2 & 3 before the vote counting begins, so let's say this now. I was an overall ALP/AJP voter. But we have to number all the options in our system so the rest of the ticket was harm minimising. Cannabis Party don't particularly appeal to me, but it's also not crossing any of my political boundaries, so they got 3rd. Then came the jerk parties. As disgusting as the Greens antisemitism is, the LNP are a threat to both abortion rights & trans rights, so I prioritised my own survival (I'm a transwoman) & the survival of my cis female friends & cousins in this state. That puts Greens 4th & LNP 5th. The KAP don't have a candidate where I live, so I didn't have to rate them. Family First are Christian extremists who hate trans people & abortion rights & want to make the place go under fundamentalist Christian leadership. They got 6th, because somehow, One Nation still exists, which is even worse. One Nation is a cesspool of racism & manosphere garbage & are the biggest threat to my Mum's entire side of the family.

[lockwoodmage]

the trauma symptoms were so spicy that i allowed my therapist to give me horse tranquilizer and i'll be damned if it didnt actually fix me a bit so i went in today like hey whats up t when can i get more horse tranquilizer and the answer was next week. horse tranquilizer ftw

[kosmos-fantastika]

Flight to Alpha Eridani anthology (Krimi-Abenteuer-Phantastik series, East Germany, 1969)

artist: Wolf Friedrich

[dutchjan]

October 05, 2023

[dakotrolls]

what's the deal with the ash rain over the town? :0

It is an overarching mystery to solve at a later time, if at all. But let's just say that this world is not as it ever seems.

[crazy-concert-time]

日本国歌 offical video

[son-bankacilik-finans-haberleri]

Türkiye Finans 2025 1. Çeyrek Verilerini Açıkladı Türkiye Finans, 2025 yılının ilk çeyreğinde ülke ekonomisine 183,8 milyar TL nakdi ve 52 milyar TL gayri nakdi olmak üzere toplam 235,8 milyar TL’lik katkı sun...

[sigortacilik-haberleri]

Türkiye Finans 2025 1. Çeyrek Verilerini Açıkladı Türkiye Finans, 2025 yılının ilk çeyreğinde ülke ekonomisine 183,8 milyar TL nakdi ve 52 milyar TL gayri nakdi olmak üzere toplam 235,8 milyar TL’lik katkı sun...

[sigorta-sektoru]

Türkiye Finans 2025 1. Çeyrek Verilerini Açıkladı Türkiye Finans, 2025 yılının ilk çeyreğinde ülke ekonomisine 183,8 milyar TL nakdi ve 52 milyar TL gayri nakdi olmak üzere toplam 235,8 milyar TL’lik katkı sun...

[sigorta-haberleri]

Türkiye Finans 2025 1. Çeyrek Verilerini Açıkladı Türkiye Finans, 2025 yılının ilk çeyreğinde ülke ekonomisine 183,8 milyar TL nakdi ve 52 milyar TL gayri nakdi olmak üzere toplam 235,8 milyar TL’lik katkı sun...

[kariyerim-ve-egitim-hayatim]

Türkiye Finans 2025 1. Çeyrek Verilerini Açıkladı Türkiye Finans, 2025 yılının ilk çeyreğinde ülke ekonomisine 183,8 milyar TL nakdi ve 52 milyar TL gayri nakdi olmak üzere toplam 235,8 milyar TL’lik katkı sun...

[is-ve-kariyer-dunyasi-haberleri]

Türkiye Finans 2025 1. Çeyrek Verilerini Açıkladı Türkiye Finans, 2025 yılının ilk çeyreğinde ülke ekonomisine 183,8 milyar TL nakdi ve 52 milyar TL gayri nakdi olmak üzere toplam 235,8 milyar TL’lik katkı sun...