Bob Katter claims Gaza refugees are part of Hamas, as the Queensland MP continues to position himself as one of Parliament’s most outspoken defenders of Israel. Stephanie Tran reports.
Bob Katter marched alongside thousands of protesters in Brisbane on Sunday at a “March for Australia” rally, one of several anti-immigration demonstrations held across the country.
Addressing the crowd, Katter criticised Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke for allowing Gaza refugees into Australia, describing the refugees as “part of Hamas”.
“I don’t want to hesitate to say that the forces of evil are abroad,” Katter said. “I’ve got to mention Tony Burke by name … because he’s the leader of the house. … He brought in 2,000 Gazans. 2,000 Gazans without any reference to the people of Australia. The Gazans are people that come from the same area and are part of Hamas. They murdered 3,000 people in New York. They murdered 1,200 people crossing the border into Israel.
They murder people all of the time, and the people they murder, I might add, are Christians.
The comments conflate Palestinian civilians with Hamas and misstate the origins of the September 11 attacks, which were carried out by al-Qaeda.
Palestinian refugees
According to SBS, as of December 2024, 1,732 Palestinian refugees have arrived in Australia, while more than 7,100 applications have been rejected. Last week, when questioned about the number of applications made by Palestinian refugees that the government is processing, Burke told the National Press Club that there were “roughly 600 to 700 of them on our caseload”.
Katter went on to repeat his calls for “no migration without assimilation” telling the rally:
“Our party says no migration without assimilation. Now ask the question, do you come from a country with democracy? No. Do you come from a country with rule of law? No. Do you come from a country with Christianity? … No. Do you come from a country with industrial awards? No. Then what the hell are you bringing them to this country for?”
No migration without assimilation. And that just about means no migration.
Katter’s long record of Israel advocacy
Katter’s comments are the latest in a long history of vocal support for Israel and inflammatory remarks about Palestinians.
In a September interview with Guardian Australia, he described himself as “the most pro-Jewish person in the parliament” and “the leader of the anti-Gazan mob”, adding: “There’s a lot of other people, but I’m probably the most vociferous.”
In August, Katter issued a statement titled ‘Australia should stand with Israel’ in response to Anthony Albanese’s plan to recognise a Palestinian state at the United Nations. In the statement, he described the proposal as “dangerous” and “not an Australian position”.
“Israel is surrounded by over a million people in Muslim countries, many of whom are committed to the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people,” he said.
“We are told Israel’s retaliation has gone too far. But you can’t start a fight and then cry foul when there is backlash.”
Earlier, in February 2024, Katter used a parliamentary speech to question why Australia was accepting refugees from Gaza and accused the ALP of being run by “mosques in Sydney”.
“No Muslim country and no Arab country will take them,” he said. “Why is Australia taking them? That is a big question for the ALP to answer.”
“The mosques in Sydney control the ALP in Sydney, and the Sydney ALP controls the Australian ALP. …if you are allowing 850 people in from Gaza and no one else in the world will take them, you’ve got to ask a question: why is the ALP—and I say the ALP here, not the government—taking these people?”
In October 2023, Katter also alleged that Australian aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) was being “incorrectly used to support terrorists”.
Family ties to weapons supplier
Katter’s political advocacy for Israel has drawn renewed attention to his family’s financial ties to the defence industry.
His son-in-law, Robert Nioa, heads the Queensland-based NIOA Group, Australia’s largest privately owned weapons supplier.
Since 2007, Nioa Group and its subsidiaries have received almost $2B in government contracts.
According to the Australian Electoral Commission, political donations from the Nioa Family Trust and Katter’s daughter Elizabeth Nioa to Katter’s party total more than $660,000, including $500,000 from Elizabeth Nioa and $160,000 from Nioa Nominees Pty Ltd.
NIOA’s influence within the defence sector has extended into federal politics: former Coalition defence minister Christopher Pyne sits on the company’s board, while former Labor senator and parliamentary secretary for defence David Feeney serves as a strategic adviser.
In 2023, NIOA acquired the US-based Barrett Firearms Manufacturing, a leading supplier of sniper rifles to the Israeli Defence Force. An industry publication highlighted Barrett’s long-standing relationship with Israeli Special Forces, which grew after European manufacturers limited small-arms exports to Israel due to political concerns, creating a preference to procure a US-made weapon.
Multiple investigations have concluded that Israeli snipers are deliberately targeting children.
Foreign medical teams who have volunteered in Gaza have reported treating scores of children with gunshot wounds to the head or chest, injuries that they say provide clear evidence that Israeli troops are systematically targeting children.
In September, Dutch daily Volkskrant published a report in which 15 doctors described treating children with single, precise bullet wounds to the upper body, a sign that they had been deliberately targeted. The doctors featured in the report identified 114 such cases during their missions.
A BBC World Service investigation published in August documented more than 160 children shot by Israeli forces. In 95 cases, the children were shot in the head or chest. Doctors said the nature of the injuries left little doubt that they were deliberately targeted.
Katter referred to International Criminal Court
A submission has been lodged with the International Criminal Court (ICC) alleging that Katter provided “material support” to the Israeli Defence Force through his son-in-law’s company, Barrett Firearms Manufacturing.
The submission, seen by MWM, alleges that there “credible evidence indicates Mr Katter is complicit in genocide and war crimes through material support for weapons transfers to Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), including sniper systems supplied via his son-in-law Robert Nioa’s company, Barrett Firearms Manufacturing. Katter’s legislative attacks on Palestine advocates demonstrate intent to shield weapons trade scrutiny. Combined with medical evidence, this meets ICC’s direct intent threshold for complicity.”
It further claims that Katter ignored appeals from constituents and medical professionals who had provided evidence of Palestinian children injured by Barrett sniper systems. Instead, it alleges, he used parliamentary speeches to defend Israel’s military operations.
The submission urges the ICC to include Katter in its ongoing investigation into crimes committed by the Israeli military, and to subpoena NIOA and Barrett’s financial records as well as Israeli military deployment logs for sniper units.
MWM put detailed questions to Katter regarding his political and familial links to NIOA Group, the ICC submission and his public statements on Israel and Palestine. His office did not respond to the request for comment.
Community backlash and reports of abuse
Members of Mareeba’s Muslim community in Katter’s north Queensland electorate of Kennedy told MWM that they have been trying to meet with the MP to discuss what they describe as a rise in racial hostility fuelled by his rhetoric.
One doctor, who asked not to be named for safety reasons, said there had been “multiple attempts to contact his office to discuss the racist comments he’s made about Muslims”.
“I think that his involvement, and the way he’s been so aggressively outspoken against Palestinians, has given people the green light to abuse us,” the doctor said.
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“When you’re speaking to family in Gaza and hearing about the atrocities that are happening, and then you hear someone like Bob Katter screaming ‘they started it’ without any context, it’s really upsetting.”
“The Muslim community in Mareeba have been here for over a century. He needs to face up to his community and address his links to and support for Israel.”
Stephanie is a journalist with a passion for uncovering stories that hold power to account. With a background in both law and journalism, she has worked at The Guardian and as a paralegal, where she assisted Crikey’s defence team in the high-profile defamation case brought by Lachlan Murdoch. Her reporting has been recognised nationally, earning her the 2021 Democracy’s Watchdogs Award for Student Investigative Reporting and a nomination for the 2021 Walkley Student Journalist of the Year Award.