Bob Katter’s threat to punch a journalist over a question about his heritage has drawn criticism from senior MPs across the political spectrum, who say his colourful character is no justification for violent behaviour.<\/p>\n
But a formal motion of censure against the Queensland MP in parliament next week over an incident that occurred outside the building is not expected.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Friday morning that the 80-year-old should “have a look at himself” after he called a Channel Nine reporter “racist” and threatened to punch him in the mouth over a question.<\/p>\n
“Bob Katter needs to have a look at that footage, have a look at himself, frankly, and recognise that that’s just not what we expect of any Australian, let alone someone who’s in public office,” Mr Albanese told Channel Nine.<\/p>\n
Reporter Josh Bavas had asked about Mr Katter’s Lebanese migrant heritage after the MP held a conference about his intentions to join an anti-immigration rally this weekend.<\/p>\n
It prompted a furious reaction from Mr Katter, who then approached Mr Bavas and shook his fist in the reporter’s face, just moments after saying he had “punched blokes in the mouth” over similar remarks.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Bob Katter held a press conference speaking against migration from certain countries he said did not share Australia’s views. (ABC News: Curtis Rodda)<\/p>\n
Mr Katter is well-liked across the political spectrum, but MPs have said his behaviour on Thursday crossed a line.<\/p>\n
Nationals leader David Littleproud, whose seat of Maranoa neighbours Mr Katter’s seat of Kennedy, said Mr Katter’s behaviour was unbecoming.<\/p>\n
“It doesn’t matter who you are or how iconic you think you are. We’ve been given a privileged place in parliament to go and to actually debate ideas with intellect,” Mr Littleproud said.<\/p>\n
“Bob wears the big hat and it all seems all great and bravado, but I mean, I get questions that I don’t like to answer, but when you put yourself into the public sphere, and you have that privilege of sitting in that great building of parliament facing the most sacred building [the Australian War Memorial], you’ve got to live up to your responsibility.<\/p>\n
“And I don’t think that sort of behaviour is appropriate for a federal Member of Parliament.”<\/p>\n
Mr Littleproud said he would like Mr Katter to apologise, but doubted he would.<\/p>\n
Liberal senator Jane Hume told Channel Seven that Mr Katter must answer for his outburst.<\/p>\n
“You should always be able to feel safe and respected at work \u2014 journalists and politicians. The idea of threatening violence is entirely unacceptable. There must be consequences,” Senator Hume said.<\/p>\n
“Bob Katter is an independent. That doesn’t necessarily mean we don’t have processes in place to deal with it. I would imagine that those new processes that have been set up, and the Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission (IPSC), will be looking at this very seriously.”<\/p>\n
The IPSC, which was created last year to enforce behaviour codes for parliamentarians and other staff in Commonwealth parliamentary workplaces, is able to investigate unreasonable behaviour that creates a risk to work health and safety.<\/p>\n
Parliamentarians can be referred to the IPSC by persons in their employ, party leaders or presiding officers, and by people who work predominantly at a Commonwealth parliamentary workplace.<\/p>\n
Mr Katter’s son, Robbie Katter, who serves as a state MLC under his father’s banner, told Sky News his family’s migrant heritage was a “deeply personal family dimension,” and it was “no big shock” his father responded aggressively when he was asked about a perceived personal matter.<\/p>\n
“I would say, too, he is an 80-year-old man. It’s hard to see how that’s too intimidating. I know he is a lot more aggressive than other 80-year-olds, so I get that,” he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bob Katter’s threat to punch a journalist over a question about his heritage has drawn criticism from senior…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,32308,66974,74731,74730,44,6895,74732,12530],"class_list":{"0":"post-103351","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-bob-katter","11":"tag-david-littleproud","12":"tag-jane-hume","13":"tag-josh-bavas","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-prime-minister","16":"tag-prime-minister-anthony-albanese","17":"tag-threat"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}