Rural man

Our electoral system has granted us a chance to see the rural man with his plumage outstretched¹. If we'd sought his canefield notions by direct methods, rural man would've come with his guard up. His keen rural nose would've warned him that something smelled amiss. An instinctual wariness of the city folk would've confounded his eagerness to foist his granddaddy's wisdom upon them. By the time we coaxed him to state his views, he would've bored them full of equivocations and other boltholes for escape, lest the devious city folk try to trap him in them. But instead, our electoral system has managed to deliver him to us with his pride in his backwoods convictions unabashed. I indulge in a few samples:

• "Mr Katter reckoned yesterday he would 'walk to Bourke backwards' if 'the poof population of North Queensland...[equals]...any more than 0.001 per cent'.
  'Mind you,' he said, 'if the percentage...[equals]...what they say it...[does]...in the rest of Australia, then I think I'll take to walking everywhere backwards.'"
(Mike Seccombe, Bottom Line for Katter (March 4, 1994). Sydney Morning Herald^2,3, Quoted without elision in the comments)


• "Ethnic community leaders say the use by the National Party MP for the Federal seat of Kennedy, Mr Bob Katter, of the racist term "slanty-eyed ideologues" could ruin the Coalition's electoral chances on March 2."
  (Helen Pitt, Sack Katter, Urge Ethnic Leaders (February 15, 1996). Sydney Morning Herald.⁴)



• Katter Throws Crocs Into Climate Debate (August 12, 2009, ABC News Online)



• "Independent MP Bob Katter has wheeled a barrow full of bananas into Parliament House as a way of highlighting the threat imports pose to the local industry...
  Mr Katter's staff, dressed as bananas, danced and howled in the background"
  (Katter Pulls Banana Stunt in Canberra (September 17, 2009). Sydney Morning Herald⁵.



• Nats try to lure rednecks (September 24, 1999, Illawarra Mercury)

Footnotes:

1. Can democracy forgive my childish misgivings? I see now how much better it knew my desires than I did. On behalf of all Australians who delight in the mockery of country people, I extend thanks to our electoral system for the sudden eminence of Bob Katter.
2. Retrieved August 28, 2010 from
   newsstore.smh.com.au
3. Repeated in Jo Chandler, Katter Country (August 28, 2010). The Age.
4. Retrieved August 28, 2010 from
   newsstore.smh.com.au
5. Retrieved August 28, 2010 from
   news.smh.com.au