Katter's Australian Party (KAP) is an
agrarian populist
Populism is a contested concept used to refer to a variety of political stances that emphasize the idea of the " common people" and often position this group in opposition to a perceived elite. It is frequently associated with anti-establis ...
political party
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...
in
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
that advocates for
agrarian socialist economic policies and
conservative social policies.
It was founded by
Bob Katter, an
independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States
* Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...
and former
Nationals MP for the seat of
Kennedy, with a registration application lodged to the
Australian Electoral Commission
The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) is the independent statutory agency of the Australian Government responsible for the management and oversight of Australian federal elections, plebiscites, referendums and some trade union
A ...
in 2011.
Katter has been re-elected under the party's label at the
2013
2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years).
2013 was designated as:
*International Year of Water Cooperation
*International Year of Quinoa
Events
January
* January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...
,
2016
2016 was designated as:
* International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly.
* International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...
,
2019
This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year.
Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...
,
2022
The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...
and
2025 federal elections. The party also won two seats at the
2012 Queensland state election
The 2012 Queensland state election was held on 24 March 2012 to elect all 89 members of the Legislative Assembly, a unicameral parliament.
The Labor Party (ALP), led by Premier Anna Bligh, was defeated by the opposition Liberal National P ...
, which it retained at the
2015 state election. The party won an additional seat at the
2017 state election which it retained at the
2020 state election and the
2024 state election.
In February 2020, Bob Katter handed the leadership of the party to his son
Robbie Katter, a
Queensland state MP.
Name

The party's application for registration was denied by the Australian Electoral Commission on 17 August 2011, on the grounds that the intended party name ("The Australian Party") was too generic and likely to cause confusion.
On 27 September 2011, Katter's Australian Party was registered by the Australian Electoral Commission. Although the party was unsuccessful in registering the shorter party name "The Australian Party" nationally, its simultaneous application to register in
Queensland
Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...
with the abbreviated name succeeded, despite a few public objections.
Under Queensland electoral law the party appears on the state election ballots only under its abbreviated name. To avoid ballot-box party names varying across Australian states, the KAP unsuccessfully appealed to the courts to have ballots reprinted so that the full party name and not the abbreviated one would appear on ballots for the
2012 Queensland state election
The 2012 Queensland state election was held on 24 March 2012 to elect all 89 members of the Legislative Assembly, a unicameral parliament.
The Labor Party (ALP), led by Premier Anna Bligh, was defeated by the opposition Liberal National P ...
.
Political positions
The KAP is orientated towards
agrarian issues.
It has also been described as
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...
,
socially conservative
Social conservatism is a political philosophy and a variety of conservatism which places emphasis on traditional social structures over social pluralism. Social conservatives organize in favor of duty, traditional values and social institu ...
,
and
nationalist
Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...
. Regarding fiscal issues, it supports
protectionism
Protectionism, sometimes referred to as trade protectionism, is the economic policy of restricting imports from other countries through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, import quotas, and a variety of other government regulations ...
,
economic nationalism
Economic nationalism or nationalist economics is an ideology that prioritizes state intervention in the economy, including policies like domestic control and the use of tariffs and restrictions on labor, goods, and capital movement. The core bel ...
, and a
developmentalist vision towards the implementation of tariffs. It advocates for
North Queensland statehood.
Policies announced by Katter include:
Crime
* Relocation sentencing: in response to high
youth crime and re-offence rates in
Townsville
The City of Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. With a population of 201,313 as of 2024, it is the largest settlement in North Queensland and Northern Australia (specifically, the parts of Australia north of ...
and other North Queensland cities, KAP advocates for "relocation sentencing" at the state level, which would temporarily relocate youth offenders to remote areas in North-West Queensland, instead of releasing them back into the community where they offended.
* Mandatory minimum sentencing for repeat offenders
* Minimum three years prison for carjacking and unlawful use of a motor vehicle
Economy
* Establish a government-owned development bank.
* Essential services such as airports, water, electricity, gas, health services, road, rail and port networks, public transport and communications should be provided by government.
Energy
* Promote the construction of new dams for irrigation and hydro electricity generation.
* Deliver more effective and efficient power transmission networks.
Environment
* Opposition to a
carbon tax
A carbon tax is a tax levied on the carbon emissions from producing goods and services. Carbon taxes are intended to make visible the hidden Social cost of carbon, social costs of carbon emissions. They are designed to reduce greenhouse gas emis ...
and emission trading schemes.
* Support for alternative energy such as
ethanol
Ethanol (also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound with the chemical formula . It is an Alcohol (chemistry), alcohol, with its formula also written as , or EtOH, where Et is the ps ...
and solar energy.
[ This is to "Reduce carbon emissions well beyond any current carbon reducing initiatives planned by the State and Federal Government".
* Prevent the extraction of coal seam gas within three kilometres (2 mi) of an aquifer.
* Maintain government support for Australia's domestic ethanol industry and mandate the use of ethanol in petrol; in order to curb Australia's carbon footprint and to support native grain and sugar industries.
* Restore vital irrigation water to agriculture in the Murray Darling Basin.
* Increase bio-security and quarantine laws, in order to maintain Australia's disease free status.
]
Firearms and gun control
* Generally make it easier for law-abiding citizens to own and operate weapons
* Revise National Firearms Agreement
* Any owner of a farming operation who has demonstrated responsible firearm ownership by holding a current weapons licence of category A, B or higher should have the right to own a category H firearm (handgun)
* Implement real-time licensing, allowing permits to be processed at the point of sale rather than manual processing
Industrial relations
* Government must ensure that all workers, especially farmers, are able to collectively bargain for their own economic interests.
* Government must stop the use of 457 visa
In Australia, the 457 visa was the most common visa for Australian or overseas employers to sponsor skilled overseas workers to work temporarily in Australia. It was abolished on 18 March 2018 by the Turnbull government and replaced by another visa ...
s by big business as a means to replace or undermine Australian workers and Australian award pay and conditions.
Infrastructure
* Deliver better road and rail infrastructure to facilitate regional investment.
Property rights
* No exploration or mining activity will be permitted on landholders' property without the landholder's consent.
* Personal home ownership must be made easier by government implemented policies.
Public service
* It is the responsibility of the government to encourage and protect whistle blowers as an important method of discovery of the real health and performance of the public sector; and implement regular, random, independent and external professional audits of the public service sector.
Regulation
* Legislate to limit Woolworths and Coles duopoly
A duopoly (from Greek , ; and , ) is a type of oligopoly where two firms have dominant or exclusive control over a market, and most (if not all) of the competition within that market occurs directly between them.
Duopoly is the most commonly ...
to 22.5 per cent market share each.[
* Halt any privatisation and renationalise privatised assets.][ "Overseas companies owning basic services will need big profits for their shareholders. You would pay for the profits with price hikes to basic services."]
* Implement "orderly" marketing where industry structures undermine reasonable market power to producers (as perceived currently in dairy, egg and sugar industries).
* Restore individual rights, such as "fishing freely and boiling a billy without a permit".
* It is the duty of government to ensure bank lending creates real wealth in terms of improvements of the quality of life for the average Australian.
Trade
* All government spending on goods to be on Australian products where possible.[
* Ensure that any construction contracts undertaken using Australian government funds will use Australian steel.
* Every motor vehicle purchased under a government contract (arguably over 20% of Australia's motor vehicles) to be Australian-made.
* All clothing for armed forces, police and prisons to be manufactured in Australia.
* Significantly increase customs duty on products coming into Australia.][
* Mandate premium shelf space on Australian supermarkets for Australian manufactured goods.
* Prevent the sale of essential assets, public or private, including agricultural land and resource assets, to foreign companies and/or sovereign entities without caveats to protect the national interest.
* Government must ensure and limit against corporate monopolisation.]
Federal politics
2013 federal election
In the 2013 federal election, Katter's Australian Party received 1.04% of the nationwide vote in first preferences in the lower house
A lower house is the lower chamber of a bicameral legislature, where the other chamber is the upper house. Although styled as "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has come to wield more power or otherwise e ...
, and 0.89% nationwide in the Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
. Its best performing state was Queensland with 3.75% of the lower-house vote and 2.94% of the Senate vote.
Katter retained his seat of Kennedy, despite a 16-point swing in favour of the Liberal Nationals.
2016 federal election
In the 2016 federal election, Katter's Australian Party received 0.54% of the nationwide vote in first preferences in the lower house
A lower house is the lower chamber of a bicameral legislature, where the other chamber is the upper house. Although styled as "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has come to wield more power or otherwise e ...
, and 0.38% nationwide in the Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
. Bob Katter retained his seat of Kennedy, with a swing of 8.93% towards him. The party's next-best finish was in the Division of Capricornia, where Laurel Carter polled 7.08 percent of the vote.
On 7 July 2016, while counting for the election was still underway and the final result uncertain, Katter announced that he would provide confidence and supply
In parliamentary system, parliamentary democracies based on the Westminster system, confidence and supply is an arrangement under which a minority government (one which does not control a majority in the legislature) receives the support of one ...
to the Turnbull government
The Turnbull government was the federal executive government of Australia led by the 29th prime minister of Australia, Malcolm Turnbull, from 2015 to 2018. It succeeded the Abbott government, which brought the Coalition to power at the 2013 Au ...
in the event that it was reduced to minority government
A minority government, minority cabinet, minority administration, or a minority parliament is a government and cabinet formed in a parliamentary system when a political party or coalition of parties does not have a majority of overall seats in ...
. It proved unnecessary, as the Coalition finished with a one-seat majority. In August 2017, during the parliamentary eligibility crisis, Katter announced that he could not guarantee confidence and supply if the government lost its majority.
2019 federal election
In the 2019 Australian federal election, Bob Katter retained the seat of Kennedy. The party also ran candidates in the electorates of Capricornia, Dawson, Herbert, Leichhardt, Maranoa and Wright
Wright is an occupational surname originating in England and Scotland. The term 'Wright' comes from the circa 700 AD Old English word 'wryhta' or 'wyrhta', meaning worker or shaper of wood. Later it became any occupational worker (for example, a ...
, plus three Queensland candidates for the Senate.
2022 federal election
In the 2022 Australian federal election
The 2022 Australian federal election was held on Saturday, 21 May 2022, to elect members of the 47th Parliament of Australia. The incumbent Morrison government, Liberal–National Coalition government, led by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, soug ...
, Bob Katter retained the seat of Kennedy. The party also ran candidates in three other electorates Dawson, Herbert and Leichhardt, all of which are in Queensland.
2025 federal election
In the 2025 Australian federal election
The 2025 Australian federal election was held on Saturday, 3 May 2025, to elect members of the 48th Parliament of Australia. All 150 seats in the Australian House of Representatives, House of Representatives were up for election, along with 40 ...
, Bob Katter retained the seat of Kennedy. The party also ran candidates in two other electorates Herbert and Leichhardt, both of which are in Queensland.
On 14 April 2025, The Gerard Rennick People First entered into electoral agreement: uniting with the Katter's Australian Party (KAP) on a joint Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
ticket for Queensland
Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...
.
State politics
Queensland
The party fielded candidates at the 2012 Queensland state election
The 2012 Queensland state election was held on 24 March 2012 to elect all 89 members of the Legislative Assembly, a unicameral parliament.
The Labor Party (ALP), led by Premier Anna Bligh, was defeated by the opposition Liberal National P ...
. Queensland Independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States
* Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...
MP Rob Messenger had expressed interest in joining the party; however, following the merger with the Queensland Party, Messenger declared he would not join the new party as it intended to run against sitting independents at the election.
On 9 August 2011, Katter's Australian Party announced plans to merge with state Beaudesert MP Aidan McLindon's Queensland Party, with Katter's Australian Party as the surviving entity. As part of the deal, McLindon became the merged party's leader in Queensland.
On 30 October 2011, McLindon was joined by Shane Knuth, the Liberal National Party of Queensland
The Liberal National Party of Queensland (LNP) is a major conservative political party in Queensland, Australia. It was formed in 2008 by a merger of the Queensland divisions of the Liberal Party and the National Party. In most other states ...
(LNP) member for Dalrymple. Knuth, who was from the National half of the merger, objected to what he saw as a reduced voice for regional MPs in the merged party, calling it a Liberal takeover even though the merged party was dominated by former Nationals. He was also displeased with a number of tactics adopted by the LNP's organisational wing, such as grilling potential candidates and maintaining files about Labor MPs containing compromising information.
In the 2012 Queensland state election
The 2012 Queensland state election was held on 24 March 2012 to elect all 89 members of the Legislative Assembly, a unicameral parliament.
The Labor Party (ALP), led by Premier Anna Bligh, was defeated by the opposition Liberal National P ...
, the party contested 76 of the 89 seats in the state legislature. Robbie Katter won Mount Isa
Mount Isa ( ) is a city in the Gulf Country region of Queensland, Australia. It came into existence because of the vast mineral deposits found in the area. Mount Isa Mines (MIM) is one of the most productive mines in world history, based on co ...
—which is virtually coextensive with the western portion of his father's federal seat—while Knuth retained Dalrymple. McLindon was defeated in Beaudesert. Katter claimed that the Electoral Commission's decision not to print his name on the ballot cost the party 8.5% of the vote.
On 25 November 2012, the party was joined by Condamine LNP MP Ray Hopper. Like Knuth, Hopper is from the National side of the merger. As Knuth had a year earlier, Hopper claimed that the LNP had been a takeover by the old Liberal Party at the expense of the National Party, and accused the LNP of deliberately purging National influence from the party. Hopper claimed to have spoken to eight other LNP backbenchers who were considering defection. On 29 November Hopper was elected as the party's Queensland state leader.
In the 2015 Queensland state election, the party contested 11 of the 89 seats, with Knuth and Katter retaining their seats, but Hopper failed in a bid for the seat of Nanango. Due to the election's close-run result (44 Labor to 42 LNP with either needing 45), KAP was potentially in a situation to choose the government, and met with both parties and published a list of 28 demands. However, as independent MP Peter Wellington
Peter William Wellington (born 21 August 1957) is an Australian politician. He was the independent member for Nicklin in the Queensland Legislative Assembly from 1998 to 2017, and served as Speaker from 2015 to 2017. Wellington has held the ...
elected to support Labor on confidence and supply, this did not proceed further.
In the 2017 Queensland state election, Shane Knuth won Hill
A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. It often has a distinct summit, and is usually applied to peaks which are above elevation compared to the relative landmass, though not as prominent as Mountain, mountains. Hills ...
, Robbie Katter won Traeger and increased their seat numbers to 3 with Nick Dametto winning Hinchinbrook. The party increased its share of first preference votes to 2.32% and became the 3rd largest party in the Queensland Parliament
The Parliament of Queensland is the unicameral legislative body of the Australian state of Queensland. As provided under the Constitution of Queensland, the Parliament consists of the King, represented by the Governor of Queensland, and the ...
.
Katter's Australian Party maintained their parliamentary representation but further increased their share of first preference votes to 2.52% at the 2020 Queensland state election. Robbie Katter, Shane Knuth, and Nick Dametto were all reelected to their respective seats.
Katter's Australian Party maintained their parliamentary representation and further increased their share of first preference votes at the 2024 Queensland state election. Robbie Katter, Shane Knuth, and Nick Dametto were all reelected to their respective seats.
Other states
The Tasmanian Branch, led by Glenorchy Alderman Jenny Branch-Allen, claimed to have received many expressions of interest by potential candidates for the 2013 federal election.
Ann Bressington, an independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States
* Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...
(and formerly No Pokies
Independent No Pokies, also known as No Pokies or Independent Nick Xenophon's No Pokies Campaign, was an independent South Australian Legislative Council ticket that ran upper house candidates at the 1997 South Australian state election, 1997, 200 ...
) member of the South Australian Legislative Council
The Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. Its central purpose is to act as a house of review for legislation passed through the lower house, the South Australian House of Assembly, H ...
, announced in October 2013 that she would sponsor registration for the party at the 2014 state election, although she did not join the party herself. At the 2014 election, the party did however have two candidates for the Legislative Council, both of which were unsuccessful.
In February 2014, the Country Alliance announced that it would merge with the Victorian Branch of Katter's Australian Party for the upcoming 2014 state election, following confirmation at an extraordinary general meeting of the party. The merged parties plan to contest the election as the "Australian Country Alliance".
In 2018, the party contested the by-election in the New South Wales
New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...
seat of Wentworth, which was triggered by the resignation of former Prime Minister
A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
Malcolm Turnbull
Malcolm Bligh Turnbull (born 24 October 1954) is an Australian former politician and businessman who served as the 29th prime minister of Australia from 2015 to 2018. He held office as Liberal Party of Australia, leader of the Liberal Party an ...
. The party's candidate was Robert Callanan, who received the first place on the ballot paper after the draw. Callanan was later disendorsed over undisclosed former links to a brothel
A brothel, strumpet house, bordello, bawdy house, ranch, house of ill repute, house of ill fame, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in Human sexual activity, sexual activity with prostitutes. For legal or cultural reasons, establis ...
. This was the most recent time the party fielded a candidate outside of Queensland.
Donors
Katter's Australian Party has received significant donations from the firearms industry.
For the 2020-21 financial year, the largest disclosed donors to the party were
Sporting Shooters Association of Australia (Queensland) Inc
($130,000 split across two donations)
Shooters Union Qld Pty Ltd
($100,000), Firearm Dealers Association - Qld Inc ($100,000), an
Charters Towers Toyota
($20,000).
A 2019 report revealed that Katter's Australian Party has taken more than $808,760 from pro-gun groups during the 2011-2018 period. The party received the most disclosed pro-gun donations of all Australian political parties.
Leaders
Federal Leader
State Leaders
Queensland Leader
Queensland Deputy Leader
Electoral results
Federal
Queensland
South Australia
List of parliamentarians
See also
* Bob Katter
* Robbie Katter
* List of political parties in Australia
* Katter family
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Katter's Australian Party
2011 establishments in Australia
Agrarian parties in Australia
Agrarian socialist parties
Australian nationalist parties
Conservative parties in Australia
Organisations based in Queensland
Political parties established in 2011
Political parties in Queensland
Right-wing populist parties
Social conservative parties