Duane Amos (centre), pictured with Katter’s Australian Party stalwart Bob Katter and party leader Robbie Katter, says he wants a seat at the cabinet table if he is elected to represent Cook and his party holds a balance of power in a minority government after 26 October. Photo: Supplied.
The Katter’s Australian Party (KAP) candidate for Cook has a clear message for the next premier of Queensland if he wins the seat and his party holds a balance of power in a minority government following the 26 October election: make me a minister.
Duane Amos made the extraordinary request as the official campaign got under way last week and said he believed having the electorate’s representative at the cabinet table could only mean positive things for Cape York and the Torres Strait.
“I didn’t go in this [election campaign] to sit on the bench,” he told Cape York Weekly.
“I went in to create change and be in a leadership position for Cook, and if that means taking on a portfolio, so be it.
“What’s the point if there’s a minority government and we aren’t asking for that?”
KAP currently holds three seats in the 93-electorate Parliament, with some political analysts suggesting the minor party will likely retain Traeger, Hill and Hinchinbrook, as well as have a strong chance of picking up a number of new regional seats, including Cook.
The party has never demonstrated any desire to hold a ministry but Mr Amos said he believed the time was right if a balance-of-power scenario played out after voters went to the polls at the end of the month.
He acknowledged if he were successful in wrestling Cook from incumbent MP Cynthia Lui, the likelihood of being given a ministerial portfolio as a first-term representative of a minor party was low but that it was not dulling his resolve.
“Whoever forms government, whoever that may be, we need to have that discussion with them … if we take a balance of power,” he said.
“It may not even be a discussion if there is a majority government.
“But the question I have about why we aren’t at the table is ‘why not?’ – the reason I say why not is because are we part of the problem or part of the solution?
“The only way we’re going to start bringing wins back to Cook and the Cape is having a voice and the leadership that’s going to get results and deliver wins for the north, and you don’t do that without a seat at the table.
Not since Steve Bredhauer was appointed Transport and Main Roads minister in Peter Beattie’s Labor cabinet from 1998-2004 has a Cook MP been given the responsibility of a ministerial portfolio.
Premier Steven Miles did not respond to inquiries from Cape York Weekly about whether he would entertain minor parties holding ministerial portfolios if such an agreement meant forming government, but he suggested on the campaign trail last week Labor was against doing deals, a sentiment echoed by the Liberal National Party (LNP).
“The LNP has been clear on this previously – Queensland will continue to get more of the same unless we change the government,” an LNP spokesperson said when asked whether Opposition Leader David Crisafulli was open to negotiation with smaller parties like KAP if they held a genuine balance of power.
“The only way to avoid a Labor-Greens coalition of chaos and get the fresh start our state needs is by voting for the LNP’s Right Plan for Queensland’s Future.”
Mr Amos said he believed his background could make him an ideal candidate for the police or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs portfolios, and dismissed the suggestion the sheer size of the Cook electorate meant constituents would never see their MP on the ground if they were to hold a ministry.
“There has to be a refocus on what you consider to be a strong government,” he said.
“If the focus is on delivery in the south-east corner, nothing’s going to change.
“If we (KAP) get a seat at the table, we can help with that refocus, and if and when we are sitting at the table, and whomever holds government, we can be a voice in the discussion and still hold our cabinet colleagues to some sort of accountability for Cook and regional Queensland.”
