ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
Member for Kennedy Bob Katter released a statement earlier today inviting Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to join the Ancient Order of Outback Lefties, one of the oldest and most secretive clubs in Australia.
While Mr Albanese is jetting off to Japan for the Quad Summit Meeting, there’s a hive of activity in the Central West Queensland town of Winton, where the Ancient Order is located underneath the stage of the Royal Theatre on Elderslie Street.
The Australian Labor Party can trace its origins back to Central West Queensland, where a group of shearers went on strike and ended up writing a manifesto that later became the backbone of the party.
Only a handful of Australians have seen the clubhouse interior, the club is said to be more exclusive than any other in the country as progressive men and women from our nation’s harsh centre tend to leave at the earliest change they get – at least for a few years according to Katter.
In recent days, Katter has guaranteed confidence and supply for the Prime Minister to form government.
Speaking to The Advocate today in Charters Towers, Mr Katter said this was going to be a momentous occasion as it marks the first time that a city boy from “the nation’s second largest open air sewer after Melbourne” has been welcomed into the club.
“Not since Bob Hawke, who was from Bordertown in South Australia, near Pinaroo, where I once saw a roadtrain full of pigeons. I asked the bloke why he was hauling six decks of crested pigeon and he just looked me up and down and said they’re homing pigeons, you bloody idiot, and I just thought that was the funniest thing in the whole world, you see, this bloke was driving a truck chock full of flying rats and he’s the one calling me an idiot,” said Katter before exploding into laughter.
“Anyway, Hawkie was the last Prime Minister to be welcomed into the Ancient Order of the Outback Leftie. Malcolm wanted to join but between you and me, Gundy is not the bush and in fact, neither is the Hunter Valley. He’s not a real leftie, either,”
“The last bloke in, I’m not sure, I think it was Pat Rafter. Shit he can hit a ball, that Pat. So we thought that Albo, who’s going to do a lot for this part of the world if he knows what’s good for him [laughs] No, I’m dead serious, mate.”
The Advocate reached out to the Prime Minister’s Office, which at this point is just one person with an iPhone and a flat MacBook, for comment and were told Mr Albanese would attend the Royal Theatre in Winton on July 11.
More to come.
