Bob Katter has brandished a shovel during a bizarre television interview, calling it a ‘weapon’.
The Queensland politician appeared on Sky News on Thursday, telling host Tom Connell a shovel was ‘the great weapon to fight drought’.
Mr Katter’s appearance on the network comes after a tense interview between the politician and Connell in which Mr Katter threatened to give the host a ‘hiding’ for asking a ‘racist’ question about his grandfather’s heritage.
Bob Katter has brandished a shovel during a bizarre television interview, calling it a ‘weapon’
Mr Katter said Prime Minister Scott Morrison needed to wear a hard hat and sit on a bulldozer during the building of the Hughenden Irrigation scheme
Mr Katter said Prime Minister Scott Morrison needed to wear a hard hat and sit on a bulldozer during the building of the Hughenden Irrigation scheme, which he believes will provide relief to people suffering from the effects of drought.
‘It’s shovel ready, ready to go. This is the great weapon to fight drought,’ he said while pointing at the tool.
‘Our rivers run every year, put a shovel-load of dirt, hold a little bit of water back, and you’ve got it for the rest of the year.’
Mr Katter’s appearance on Sky News came after he said Connell needed a ‘hiding’ for asking if his grandfather – who was born in Bcharre, Lebanon in 1882 – would be welcome in Australia following Katter’s Australian Party member Fraser Anning’s controversial speech on immigration.
In the speech, Mr Anning called Muslims in Australia a ‘problem’ and said a ‘final solution’ was needed in the form of a public vote on immigration.
‘I think that asking people about where their forebears come from, or commenting upon it, is the height of bad manners,’ Mr Katter replied.
‘If my mother had ever heard me talking about money, or about someone’s racial origins, I would’ve got a big hiding, and Tom, you need a big hiding.
It comes after a tense interview between Mr Katter and Tom Connell where the Queensland representative threatened to give the host a ‘hiding’
‘You need a big hiding for ever mentioning anything of that nature.
‘It’s a racist remark by you and you stand condemned for a racist remark.’
Connell said the question was not racist, and that he was simply asking about ‘birthplace’.
Mr Katter disagreed with Connell’s line of questioning.
‘I’m an Australian, my grandfather was an Australian on my father’s side, and his father was an Australian,’ he said.
‘They’re Australians mate, don’t worry about where they come from, and they’re bloody good Australians.’
Mr Katter’s appearance on Sky News came after he said Connell needed a ‘hiding’ for asking if his grandfather would be welcome in Australia