NORTH Queensland's most powerful cowboy rode into Canberra on Tuesday night where the horse trading begins between a gang of three rural Independents and the two major parties scrambling to form Government after the weekend's election resulted in a hung parliament.
And on top of maverick MP, Bob Katter's negotiating agenda will be the survival of rural Australia – a point he was hammering home during preliminary discussions with the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, and Opposition leader Tony Abbott, in Canberra yesterday.
Tagged one of Australia's three most powerful men at the moment, Mr Katter said he's not spooked by the negotiations to take place over the weeks ahead.
Listen to Independent Member for Kennedy Bob Katter here
He said all he's after is the right for the areas he represents to survive.
"We're not surviving in rural Australia, we've been declining for 25 years, our industries are all collapsing, our populations are all going, and business can look forward to less and less income every year," Mr Katter said on his arrival to Canberra.
He said it was no secret that ethanol was a big issue for him, and said Australia's trade approach was also hurting rural communities.
"We've been under a paradigm where yes, we can free market, yes we can have no quarantine restrictions, anything can come into Australia," he said.
"The apples were allowed in recently….I mean everything can come into Australia.
"We told them if you bring in prawns, you'll bring in diseases.
"Now the Great Barrier Reef, which I represent, is being venomously attacked…"
Mr Katter said he wouldn't make any presumptive statements one way or the other about who he should or should not support in forming government.
"Tony's mob was in there for 12 years, and at the end of the 12 years there was a farmer committing suicide every four days.
"If they were good for the bush I'm a Martian astronaut.
"Whether the ALP has turned anything back in the last three years then I'm not too sure."
Asked whether he would accept a ministry in a new government Mr Katter said "I'm not in the business of being conned".
Mr Katter said the adversarial nature of Australian politics, which he described as the "Woolworths and Coles model", had been dreadful for Australian politics.
"People on Saturday rejected a Woolworths and Coles political system outright.
"The ranks are growing with those with complete disgust for the mainstream parties.
"Australia's political system as a primitive two-party system which Australia needs to break away from.
"That doesn't mean instability, it means democracy."
Mr Katter said he was not deterred by the perceived power he has in the coming weeks of political negotiations.
"I wielded great power in the State of Queensland…I've wielded power before, I come from a family that has had a lot of power for about five generations in Australia.
"I'm used to power and I feel comfortable with it."
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