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Key Points
- Bob Katter has said that, to prevent terror attacks, migrants from the Middle East shouldn’t be allowed in Australia.
- However, the MP said there are exceptions to his beliefs about Middle Eastern migrants, such as his own ancestors.
- Last year, Katter cut off and threatened to punch a reporter who asked about his heritage.
Bob Katter has acknowledged his Middle Eastern heritage, months after threatening to punch a journalist who asked about his Lebanese roots.
The Queensland MP confronted a TV reporter last August, thrusting a fist to his face when asked about his family’s heritage. The reporter asked the question after Katter said he’d be “front and centre” at the upcoming anti-immigration March for Australia rallies.
As parliament returned early to debate hate laws on Tuesday, the 80-year-old argued that, to prevent further terror attacks, migrants from the Middle East shouldn’t be allowed in Australia.
That prompted Ten News cameraman Ghaith Nadir — an Australian citizen who migrated from Iraq — to ask whether there was room for exemptions, noting the heroic actions of Ahmed al Ahmed, who disarmed one of the alleged gunmen during the Bondi terror attack.
“I just want to put on the public record, it wasn’t my great-grandfather,” Katter said, clarifying that it was his grandfather who migrated from the Middle East to Australia.
Bob Katter acknowledged that his views on Middle Eastern migrants have exceptions, notably pointing to his own lineage as an example.
“My forebears came from that area, because they wanted to get out of there,” Katter said, while standing in front of a banner reading ‘no migration without assimilation’.
“You make a valid point,” he remarked. “There are undoubtedly exceptions to the rule.”
“I am Australian, and my family has been here for generations,” he added.
The comments stand in contrast to Katter’s reaction last year, when he cut off a reporter who asked about his heritage.
“Don’t say that, because that irritates me, and I punch blokes in the mouth for saying that,” Katter yelled.
“I am Australian. My family have been here since the dawn of time.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese urged Katter to “have a look at himself” after the incident, stating, “that’s not what we expect of any Australian, let alone someone who’s in public office”.
It also prompted Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young to refer Katter to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission, requesting an investigation into his conduct.
Katter’s grandfather, Carl Robert Katter, emigrated from Lebanon to Australia in 1898.
Deceased Bondi terror suspect Sajid Akram was an Indian national, and not from the Middle East. His son Naveed Akram, the other gunman accused of carrying out the terror attack that left 15 people dead, was born in Australia.
