Every time Bob Katter walks previous the portrait of Charles McDonald, the primary member for Kennedy who grew to become Labor’s first Speaker of the House in 1910, he salutes the splendidly moustachioed pioneer with a raised fist in honour of “the good man”.
On Thursday, Katter was within the corridor to unveil his personal portrait, commissioned to sit down alongside the likenesses of royals, governors, audio system and prime ministers, to honour his half-century of service as an MP – 18 years in Queensland’s parliament, after which 32 years to this point representing his huge, far-north Queensland citizens.
Bob Katter admires the portrait as artist David Darcy appears to be like on.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Early rumours that Katter would attend the occasion in his inflatable pig swimsuit have been dashed: he wore the black three-piece swimsuit that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese advised the gang was impressed “by Bob’s perception that James Garner appeared good in a single in Maverick”, the Nineteen Fifties TV western about canny rogues who shoot from the hip.
At 80, the voice isn’t as strong because it was eight years in the past when Katter made world headlines segueing from same-sex marriage to lethal crocodiles, however he got here to the rostrum hinting he’s nonetheless prepared for a combat, or as he phrases it, going “out the again of the pub”. This could or will not be a metaphor.
“I’ve been in the back of the pub three, 4 occasions. One of them bent my nostril a bit,” he mentioned. “I’ll transfer on.”
He didn’t. Instead, peering by means of his studying glasses, he mentioned: “A matter of honour is a part of the Australian manner … and if I acquired a bit confrontational with a bloke a couple of weeks in the past, ah nicely, you already know, out the again of the pub, mate.”
Bob Katter and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese shake arms in entrance of the previous’s portrait.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
So no apology for his unprovoked menace to punch Nine journalist Josh Bavas within the mouth in August for asking concerning the MP’s Lebanese heritage days earlier than the nation’s massive anti-migration marches.
Instead, Katter paid tribute to Katters of outdated “well-known for his or her combating”, to forebears who had served in Gallipoli, been held in Changi, or just sat with their weapons at Cloncurry airport able to shoot any Japanese airplane out of the sky.
