Bob Katter (Kennedy, Katter's Australian Party) Share this | Hansard source

When I came into parliament as a member of the National Party government, in three months I got no questions at all. Now every two or three weeks I get a question. When I did get the question, the whip came down and said, 'You've got a question today, Katter,' and he gave me the question. I said, 'That's got nothing to do with my electorate. I'm not interested in that. What're you giving me that for?' and he said, 'That's the question you're asking.' I said, 'Hold on a minute, am I to understand that the only way I get to stand up and ask questions in this place is if I'm a mouthpiece and a little puppet on a string for you? Is that the way it works?' and he said, 'Yes, that's the way it works.' What we're asking for is a more enlightened approach than that.

Question time was cut short because I had question 21, and the Prime Minister was a bit scared of it; I know that. He's a good bloke. Peter Andren and Ted Mack, the fathers of the third force in politics, said on their first re-election, the first time that a third-party person had ever gotten re-elected, 'The only questions that will be asked in this place will be asked by those of us on the crossbenches, because they are the only meaningful questions.' One side throws banana skins in front of the government, and the government tell us how wonderful they are, which bores the entire Australian public silly—and I want to thank both of them, because that's the reason we're here. It sure would be nice if we gave a bit of return on their money to the taxpayers of Australia.

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