One of the pleasures of holidays is sitting down with a few books. I did that recently but perhaps undermined my pleasure with one of my reading choices, Bob Katter's An Incredible Race of People.
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I recall reading it around the time it came out eight years ago but at the time I had little to do with Mr Katter.
Since I've come to the North West, there have been many occasions when Mr Katter has read from his book or quoted from it and I kept thinking I needed to revisit it.
So when I saw it staring at me in the Mount Isa Library just before Christmas I felt compelled to pick it up and I feel fairly certain I was the only person on the beach on Norfolk Island reading this book (or any book even vaguely politically related).
The book is a distillation of Mr Katter's ideas and the people who inspire him.
The title comes from a phrase the then Queen of Spain used to describe Australians to him when he met her in Brisbane during Expo 88.
There are biographical passages about two of Mr Katter's favourite politicians, both with colour-coded nicknames: Edward "Red Ted" Theodore, the Queensland Labor politician of the inter-war era and John "Black Jack McEwen, the Country party leader of the post-war era.
Theodore was a state premier and later federal treasurer and Mr Katter admires him for fiscal policies that tried to lift Australia out of the Great Depression by expanding the money supply (he was defeated in parliament).
McEwen, meanwhile, was the arch protectionist determined to fight to keep manufacturing jobs in Australia.
Mr Katter recalls a conversation he had with Mr McEwen about tariffs who told him the Australian market needed jobs and manufacturing industries needed tariffs to provide those jobs.
Mr Katter remains steadfast in his criticism of the global economy that has removed those tariffs and these days he has powerful hitters like Donald Trump who agree.
But I think the book, while well researched, doesn't reflect well enough on the many changes Australia has had for the better since the 1980s such as our access to world markets and our wonderful multi-cultural society.
Still, as a way of understanding what makes Mr Katter tick, it's worth a read.
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.
