Peter John Knott (8 August 1956 – 29 October 2015) was an Australian politician, elected as a member of the

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. The term of members o ...

. He represented Gilmore from 1993 to 1996 for the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms t ...

(ALP). Knott was a librarian and teacher before entering Parliament. His father was New South Wales Labor MP Bill Knott, who represented the seats of

Wollondilly Wollondilly Shire is a periurban local government area adjacent to the south-western fringe of Sydney, parts of which fall into the Macarthur, Blue Mountains and Central Tablelands regions in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Wollon ...

and

Kiama Kiama () is a coastal town 120 kilometres south of Sydney in the Illawarra. One of the main tourist attractions is the Kiama Blowhole. Kiama features several popular surfing beaches and caravan parks, and numerous alfresco cafes and restaurants ...

in state parliament from 1978 to 1986. Knott was considered an eccentric character by his colleagues and the media, with a number of colourful stories to his name. During the 1993 election campaign, he was asked to organise a visit to a local bakery for prime minister

Paul Keating Paul John Keating (born 18 January 1944) is an Australian former politician and unionist who served as the 24th prime minister of Australia from 1991 to 1996, holding office as the leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). He previously serv ...

, so that Keating could capitalise on confusion over opposition leader

John Hewson John Robert Hewson AM (born 28 October 1946) is an Australian former politician who served as leader of the Liberal Party from 1990 to 1994. He led the Liberal-National Coalition to defeat at the 1993 Australian federal election. Hewson wa ...

's proposed goods and services tax, exemplified by Hewson's own garbled explanation during the birthday cake interview. When they arrived at the bakery, the owner proceeded to loudly harangue the prime minister over

payroll tax Payroll taxes are taxes imposed on employers or employees, and are usually calculated as a percentage of the salaries that employers pay their employees. By law, some payroll taxes are the responsibility of the employee and others fall on the em ...

(a state tax) in front of the media, causing Keating to leave in embarrassment. Knott was defeated at the 1996 election, but contested the 2001 election for the ALP. In the 2001 campaign he caused controversy by suggesting that the

11 September 2001 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerc ...

were a result of United States foreign policy. He later withdrew this comment. Nevertheless, there was an 11-point swing against the ALP at the election—the largest swing to the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

in 2001. Knott died in late 2015, aged 59.

References

1956 births 2015 deaths Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Australia Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Gilmore Australian schoolteachers University of Wollongong alumni 20th-century Australian politicians {{Australia-Labor-representative-stub