Read about Bob Katter net worth, age, wife, children, height, family, parents, salary, and party as well as other information you need to know.
Introduction
Bob Katter is an Australian politician who has been a member of the House of Representatives since 1993. He was previously active in Queensland state politics from 1974 to 1992. Katter was a member of the National Party until 2001 when he left to sit as an independent. He formed his own party, Katter’s Australian Party, in 2011.
Katter was born in Cloncurry, Queensland. His father, Bob Katter Sr., was also a politician. Katter was elected to the Queensland Legislative Assembly at the 1974 state election, representing the seat of Flinders. He was elevated to cabinet in 1983, under Joh Bjelke-Petersen, and was a government minister until the National Party’s defeat at the 1989 state election.
He left state politics in 1992, and the following year was elected to federal parliament standing in the Division of Kennedy (his father’s old seat). He resigned from the National Party in the lead-up to the 2001 federal election and has since been re-elected four more times as an independent and twice for his own party. Katter is known for his social conservatism. His son, Robbie Katter, is a state MP in Queensland, the third generation of the family to be a member of parliament.
Early life
| Name | Bob Katter |
| Net Worth | $5 million |
| Occupation | Politician |
| Age | 77 years |
| Height | 1.75m |
Robert Bellarmine Carl Katter was born on May 22, 1945 (age 77 years) in Cloncurry, Queensland, Australia. He is the son of Robert Cummin Katter, a member for Kennedy from 1966 to 1990, and his wife, Mabel. His paternal grandparents went to Cloncurry in a stagecoach around 1900. Katter’s paternal grandfather was a Lebanese migrant, who owned clothing stores throughout north Queensland.
Katter’s father, Bob Katter Sr., was an Australian politician who was in the House of Representatives from 1966 to 1990, representing the National Party (originally named the Country Party). Growing up in Cloncurry, Katter’s family owned a clothing shop and managed a local cinema. He was one of only six at his school who finished year 12.
He attended the University of Queensland, where he studied law, but later dropped out without graduating. While at university, Katter was President of the University of Queensland Law Society and St Leo’s College. As a university student, Katter pelted the Beatles with rotten eggs during their 1964 tour of Australia, declaring in a later meeting with a band that he undertook this as “an intellectual reaction against Beatlemania”.
Career
Bob Katter served in the Citizens Military Forces. Returning to Cloncurry, he worked in his family’s businesses, and as a “labourer in the Mt Isa Mines”. His father was a member of the Australian Labor Party until 1957 when he left during the Labor split of that year. He later joined the Country Party, now the Liberal National Party. The younger Katter was a Country Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland from 1974 to 1992, representing Flinders in north Queensland.
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Katter was Minister for Northern Development and Aboriginal and Islander Affairs from 1983 to 1987, Minister for Northern Development, Community Services and Ethnic Affairs from 1987 to 1989, Minister for Community Services and Ethnic Affairs in 1989, Minister for Mines and Energy in 1989, and Minister for Northern and Regional Development for a brief time in 1989 until the Nationals were defeated in that year’s election.
He junior was a strong supporter of Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen while in the Queensland Parliament, though he remained in the cabinet under Mike Ahern, ultimately resigning from Cabinet along with Russell Cooper. He was on the backbench. Then appointed again to Cabinet in the traditional number two position of Mines & Energy. This was under the Bjelke-Petersen’s factions’ restoration to power.
Bob Katter did not run for re-election to state Parliament in 1992. He ran as the National candidate in his father’s former seat of Kennedy at the 1993 federal election, facing his father’s successor, Labor’s Rob Hulls. Despite name recognition, Katter trailed Hulls for most of the night. On the eighth count, a Liberal candidate’s preferences flowed overwhelmingly to Katter, allowing him to defeat Hulls by 4,000 votes. He would not face another contest nearly that close for two decades.
In 1994, Bob Katter advocated against federal privacy laws that bypassed Tasmania’s anti-gay laws, claiming the government was “helping the spread of AIDS” and legitimizing “homosexual behavior”. He also believed the laws jeopardized states’ rights in Australia.
He was re-elected with a large swing in 1996 and was re-elected almost as easily in 1998. However, when he transferred to federal politics, he found himself increasingly out of sympathy with the federal Liberal and National parties on economic and social issues, with Katter being opposed to neoliberalism and social liberalism.
In 2001, he resigned from the National Party and easily retained his seat as an independent at the general elections of 2001, 2004, 2007 and 2010, each time ending up with a percentage vote in the high sixties after preferences were distributed. In the aftermath of 2010 hung federal election, Katter offered a range of views on the way forward for government. Two other former National Party MPs, both independents from rural electorates, Tony Windsor, and Rob Oakeshott decided to support a Labor Government.
Bob Katter presented his 20 points document and asked the major parties to respond before deciding which party he would support. As a result, he broke with Windsor and Oakeshott and supported the Liberal/National Coalition for Government. On 7 September 2010, Katter announced his support for a Liberal/National Party coalition minority government.
On 5 June 2011, Bob Katter launched a new political party, Katter’s Australian Party, which he said would “unashamedly represent agriculture”. He made headlines after singing to his party’s candidates during a meeting on 17 October 2011, saying it was his “election jingle”.
In the 2013 election, however, Katter faced his first serious contest since his initial run for Kennedy in 1993. He had gone into the election holding the seat with a majority of 18 percent, making it the second-safest seat in Australia. However, reportedly due to anger at his decision to back Kevin Rudd (ALP) for Prime Minister following Julia Gillard’s (Prime Minister) live cattle export ban (Rudd, within weeks, reopened the live export market), Katter still suffered a primary-vote swing of over 17 points. His name is heavily associated with Rudd. In the end, Katter was re-elected on Labor preferences, suffering a two-party swing of 16 points to the Liberal National party.
In the 2016 election, Katter retained his seat over Kennedy, with an increased swing of 8.93 points toward him. On 15 August 2017, Katter announced that the Turnbull Government could not take his support for granted in the wake of the 2017 Australian parliamentary eligibility crisis, which ensued over concerns that several MPs held dual citizenship and thus may be constitutionally ineligible to be in Parliament. Katter added that if one of the affected MPs, Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce lost his seat, the Coalition could not count on his support for confidence and supply.
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In November 2018, Katter secured funds for three inland dam-irrigation schemes in North Queensland. In the 2019 election, Katter was returned to his seat of Kennedy with a swing of 2.9 points towards him, in spite of an unfavorable redistribution of his electorate. In the 2022 election, he was re-elected again and became the Father of the Australian House of Representatives following the retirement of Kevin Andrews.
Wife
Bob Katter is currently married to Susan Mary O’Rourke, they had their wedding in 1970 in Australia. His wife is a private person and together they have five children, Robbie Katter, Mary Jane Katter, Olivia Katter, Eliza Katter, and Caroline Katter. Their son Robbie Katter is also a politician who serves as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland for Traeger, having previously represented Mount Isa from 2012 to 2017. He is the leader of Katter’s Australian Party. As of April 2023, Bob and his wife Susan are still married.
Bob Katter net worth
How much is Bob Katter worth? Bob Katter net worth is estimated at around $5 million. His main source of income is from his primary work as a politician. Bob Katter’s average salary per month and other career earnings are over $400,000 dollars annually. His remarkable achievements have earned him some luxurious lifestyles and some fancy car trips. He is one of the richest and most influential politicians in Australia. He stands at an appealing height of 1.75m and has a good body weight which suits his personality.
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