By Alasdair Pal
SYDNEY (Reuters) -A veteran Australian lawmaker threatened a television journalist at a press conference on immigration on Thursday, shaking his fist and saying he had previously punched people for mentioning his Lebanese heritage.
Bob Katter, founder of Katter’s Australian Party, a populist party advocating for farmers in rural areas, called the press conference to discuss his proposed attendance of the March For Australia, an anti-immigration rally due to be held in several cities on Sunday.
“You’ve got Lebanese heritage yourself,” a journalist said at the event outside the parliament of Queensland state in Brisbane on Thursday, before Katter interrupted him.
“Don’t say that! Because that irritates me, and I’ve punched blokes in the mouth for saying that,” Katter shouted, pointing his finger at Josh Bavas, a reporter from Australian television network Channel Nine.
“My family has been here for 140 years.”
Katter said he was “restraining myself today” by not punching Bavas.
He later branded the reporter a “racist”, stepping towards him and shaking his fist, television footage showed.
“In my near 20 years in journalism, I’ve never experienced that kind of reaction from an elected representative,” Bavas said in a statement following the incident.
Fiona Dear, the director of news and current affairs at the channel’s parent company, said Katter’s threats were unacceptable and allegations of racism “baseless and offensive”, calling for him to apologise.
Katter’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
“I think it’s quite offensive to threaten a journalist,” a reporter said, after Katter refused to answer any more questions on the issue at the press conference.
“Point taken,” Katter’s son, Robbie Katter, a state lawmaker also present at the press conference, said in response.
Katter, 80, is Australia’s longest-serving federal lawmaker, and is known for his eccentric views.
In 2017, he went viral after abruptly saying he did not have time to discuss same-sex marriage as “every three months, a person is torn to pieces by a crocodile in north Queensland”.
(Reporting by Alasdair Pal in Sydney; Editing by Stephen Coates)
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