“Kennedy is a peculiar electorate,” veteran MP Bob Katter said with a smile, standing next to the shrouded frame of the near-lifesize portrait he still hadn’t seen yet.
The peculiarity he spoke of, in his far north Queensland home, was to do with its characters and its history, but it could also extend to Kennedy’s predilection for Katters; Thursday’s portrait unveiling honoured Bob’s 50 years in politics, including 12 consecutive federal terms since 1993, coming after Kennedy elected his father, Bob Sr, for 10 terms between 1966 and 1990.
That peculiarity also goes to the seeming impenetrability of Katter’s popularity in the north, in the parliament and in the media, an apparent Teflon nature which has seen him skate through raging controversies like few before him.
Threats to punch a journalist; speaking at anti-immigration rallies on a megaphone claimed by a neo-Nazi group (which Katter later criticised and distanced himself from); opposing marriage equality and his infamous claims that no gay people lived in his electorate in 1989; his decision to “identify as a Blakfulla on odd occasions”; the 2016 campaign ad depicting himself shooting dead Liberal and Labor members.
None of these made it into the official speeches at the unveiling of Katter’s portrait in the centre of Parliament House, not mentioned by House Speaker Milton Dick or the artist David Darcy or even the prime minister.
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The closest anyone got to acknowledgment of past scrutiny was Katter himself, telling a long story about how someone “bent my nose a bit” in a fight, briefly touching on how he will sometimes “get a bit confrontational, like a few weeks ago”.
His portrait, which artist Darcy said Katter hadn’t seen yet but had been approved by the MP’s wife, Susie, showed Katter in a navy three-piece suit with waistcoast, a red and white polka dot tie, holding his typical Akubra hat as he stands in front of a rusted corrugated iron backdrop.
Darcy told Guardian Australia the iron “represents outback Australia”, and Katter himself.
“When it rusts, we know it’s taken time to do that. That’s what the iron signifies, Bob’s longevity in that part of Australia, with his constituents,” he said.
Albanese, who has developed a personal bond with Katter over many years – the Kennedy veteran said the inner-west Grayndler representative had visited him more than 20 times – spoke glowingly of Katter’s ability to “bring people together from across the political spectrum, who might not agree with Bob’s views all the time … or any of the time”.
As if to illustrate the point, politicians across the aisle could be seen smiling along in the crowd: Michael McCormack, Tanya Plibersek, Barnaby Joyce, Tim Ayres, Labor and Liberal and staffers alike. Katter’s face crinkled in laughter as Albanese rattled off a list of anecdotes portraying Katter in a softer, quirkier light, from donning inflatable pig and Grim Reaper costumes, his aviator sunglasses, his advocacy for northern Australia including pushing for new dams and highways and energy projects, and his service to the Kennedy electorate.
“I’ve always appreciated his wisdom as well. He’ll come up with four or five ideas, some of which will be completely off the reservation, but in among them there will be a gem,” Albanese said fondly.
Albanese told those assembled that the portrait, to be on permanent display in the building, would ensure there would be “a corner of this Parliament House that is forever Bob Katter”.
But the man himself says he has no intention of bowing out just yet: asked if he had a few more elections left in him, Katter enthusiastically replied “yeah!”
“I amaze myself. I’m still doing an 80-hour week, much to the horror of my staff; they have to work a 60- or 70-hour week.”
Thanking Albanese for his praise, Katter acknowledged they’d “had words in the past”.
“But whatever your shortcomings may be, I consider you a good friend,” Katter went on, to laughs from the audience.
“I just need the money for the completion of the highway.”
