Relax Australia, Bob’s on the job!

I arrived back from Sri Lanka and Singapore at midday on Sunday and had two important issues to tackle.  First and foremost – mow the lawn before our 1pm open house, second – try and tame Bob Katter into a few photos.

For those foreigners or Aussies currently living in a cave let me give you a rough guide to what is happening in Australian politics right now.

1. We had a federal election on Saturday 21st August to determine which political party and Prime Minister will govern in Australia
2. A political party needs to hold a minimum of 76 seats of the 150 seats in the House of Representatives to govern in their own right
3. Neither of the major two parties (Labor or the Coalition) won enough seats so we currently have a ‘hung parliament’
4. Both of these parties and their leaders will now try and ‘woo’ the 1 Greens MP and 3, possibly 4 Independent MP’s to support their party which would then give that party the right to govern.

Ok, that’s a pretty simple explanation but hopefully it will give you and idea of the power that is now wielded by these 4 or 5 minor party MP’s.  And Bob Katter is one of those “Kingmakers”.  I spent a few hours and had dinner with Bob on Sunday and most of the day with him yesterday at his Charters Towers home.  I’m not kidding when I say he was on the phone for at least 80% of this time.  And these weren’t calls I could get him off, these were politically important calls and therefore, important to me.  Most of the photographs I took of Bob show him on the phone and for good reason.  That is ALL he is doing at the moment!

Here’s some clippings from The Australian, The Courier-Mail and the Daily Telegraph over the past two days.  The first clipping is a great yarn by The Courier-Mail reporter Peter Michael.  Click the image to see a larger version that you can read.  I’ve also added some photos from the past couple of days as well.

[Show as slideshow]

Click the image to read a full size pdf of the spread

The Australian - 24 August 2010

The Courier-Mail - Click photo to see and read a larger version

Page one of The Australian - 23 August 2010

Bob and grand-daughter Kate wait at a Townsville air charter hanger

Bob Katter and wife Susie in The Courier-Mail (Click the read article)