Bob Katter has been comfortably re-elected to the seat of Kennedy and could have a powerful role to play in the new parliament.
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With four seats still in doubt, the Coalition has 74 seats, one short of an overall majority in the 149 seat parliament.
Labor has 67 seats and five are held by minor parties or independents.
Those five are Bob Katter (Kennedy, Qld) for the KAP, Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Vic) for the Greens, Cathy McGowan (Indi, Vic) independent and Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, SA) for the Nick Xenophon Team.
There are no real natural allies for Mr Katter in that group though he has shown a willingness to work across the aisle in parliaments past and it could put him in a position of kingmaker as it did in 2010.
Mr Katter’s position has been strengthened after the 72-year-old tightened his grip on Kennedy with two-party preferred swing of 9.24% over the 25-year-old LNP candidate Jonathan Pavetto.
With 94 booths counted out of 103, Mr Katter has 23.052 votes to Mr Pavetto 17,823.
Norm Jacobsen of the LNP is third with 10,384 next is Valerie Weier of the Greens with 2705 and last Donna Gallehawk of Family First with 2111.
The North West Star is awaiting comment from Mr Katter, Mr Pavetto and Mr Jacobsen but a Katter spokesperson said the margin of the result was a “surprise and delight”.
“We did not expect this, we thought it would be a lot tighter,” Mr Katter’s spokesperson said.
Mr Katter won almost every booth in Kennedy with the exception of Mr Pavetto’s home town of Ingham and the Tablelands town of Yungaburra.
Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
