Bob Katter answers Cairns band's crocodile ballad with lyrical threat

Bob Katter answers Cairns band's crocodile ballad with lyrical threat In short: Cairns band The Cherabins have written a song about Bob Katter from the perspective of a crocodile, saying the veteran parliamentarian should "move to Parramatta". Crocodile conservationists are calling on the Kennedy MP to listen to the lyrics and abandon his push for a legalised croc cull. What's next? Bob Katter has penned his own lyrics in response to the song and made no indication of winding back his croc cull campaign in the north. Bob Katter says he loves crocodiles. In fact, he ate one at the pub the other night. But when a Far North band wrote a new song about him from the croc's point of view, the veteran MP fired back with a lyrical threat. Now a conservationist is urging Mr Katter to heed the song's message and abandon calls for a crocodile cull. Croc and roll Cairns musical outfit The Cherabins released their song Katter this week. In it, a saltwater croc pleads for peace and suggests the member for Kennedy "move to Parramatta, where I won't eat you". Band member Jonah Lafferty said the tongue-in-cheek lyrics came from a place of honest care for native species. "We are concerned that Bob seems to detest the crocodiles up here,"Lafferty said. "It's difficult to have this debate properly unless you can hear from both sides … so we thought we just had to pen the crocodile's perspective." Mr Katter, 81, said plenty of "very unflattering" songs had been written about him over the years, but called this one "bloody terrific" and "real catchy". He rejected any suggestion he hated crocs. "No, I love them," he said. "I ate one the other night at the Tolga pub. It was pretty good." Where the cull debate stands Mr Katter has been an outspoken advocate for crocodile population control for about 20 years. The Queensland branch of Katter's Australian Party (KAP) has introduced five bills in state parliament since 2017, calling for legalised culls, egg harvesting or hunting safaris. None has passed into law. The Crisafulli government last year handed down Queensland's first major crocodile management reform in almost a decade, with increased patrols and expanded removal zones. It still falls well short of the KAP's demands. Lafferty acknowledged the issue was a heated one in the north. "It is difficult when you want to go down to the beach and have a swim and you've got to watch out for crocs," he said. "But at the end of the day, we're a band who write songs all about the wildlife of Far North Queensland, and so personally, we do take the side of the crocodile." 'Let a thousand blossoms bloom' The song closes with an impression of Mr Katter's famous "let a thousand blossoms bloom" remarks he made during the 2017 same-sex marriage postal survey, in which he claimed that "every three months, a person is torn to pieces by a crocodile in North Queensland". At the time, RMIT ABC Fact Check found there had been an average of one fatal attack every 20 months in Queensland. The state has recorded five fatal crocodile attacks and 13 non-fatal attacks since 2017. The most recent death was in January 2025, when a 60-year-old man was killed while fishing in Watson River near Aurukun on Cape York. Explaining the now infamous quote, Mr Katter said he had been intent on talking about crocodiles, but interviewers continually raised "this other business". "But the 'thousand blossoms bloom' caught the airwaves,"he said. What the conservationists say Wildlife advocate Amanda French from CROC QLD urged Mr Katter to consider the song's message. "The Crocodile Control and Conservation Bill that was tabled for the fifth time was thrown out [of Queensland Parliament] again last year," she said. "We need to focus on changing people's behaviour in croc country, not eradicating crocodiles. "And we need to listen to the science, which is essentially that culling is ineffective." Mr Katter showed no indication he would change his tune. In fact, he penned his own response to the track. "You've got the jaws / You've got the claws / But I've got the .44s."