Firebrand politician Bob Katter reignites his war of words with Terri Irwin over his 'lazy' crocodile hunting push

Sky News AU

31-07-2025

Firebrand politician Bob Katter has reignited his war of words with Terri Irwin, the widowed wife of beloved Australian conservationist Steve Irwin, after she labelled his bid to legalise crocodile hunting 'lazy' and 'sloppy'.
Dr Irwin, director of Australia Zoo, was among nearly 200 stakeholders who made submissions to the committee overseeing a controversial bill introduced by Katter's Australian Party to allow croc culling and egg harvesting to keep populations in check and make recreational waterways safer.
'The Crocodile Control and Conservation Bill 2025 will increase the probability of crocodile attacks on people and impact the overall health of Queensland waterways,' Dr Irwin said in her submission.
'More than sixty percent of the clauses in this Bill are exactly the same as previous versions. In fact, it is such a lazy and sloppy attempt to recycle old draft legislation that the Explanatory Notes refers to the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection – the department has not been called that since 2017.'
Speaking to Sky News, Bob Katter vehemently defended criticisms from Dr Irwin and Australia Zoo.
'What the hell would they know about it? They live in Brisbane. All they know about is crocodiles in cages. They've never lived where the crocodiles are,' Mr Katter said.
'Even I don't want crocodiles in cages.'
Sky News requested an interview with Dr Irwin but a reply has not been received.
Mr Katter's Australian Party's bill, which proposes the establishment of a Cairns-based Queensland Crocodile Authority to oversee a permanent crocodile culling program, has been rejected by a parliamentary committee.
The bill seeks to legislate licencing for crocodile farms and sanctuaries, safari-style hunting and egg harvesting as a means of controlling the reptiles' growing populations and making recreational waterways safer.
But the Health, Environment and Innovation Committee overseeing the bill has recommended it not be passed.
"The committee agrees that public safety should always be a paramount consideration but ultimately concluded that no amount of culling or management will ever fully erase the danger posed by crocodiles," the committee's report said.
Mr Katter said growing crocodile populations and a geographical expansion of their habitat was the result of an 'imbalance' in Queensland waterways caused by a 1970s ban of crocodile culling and egg harvesting.
Reintroducing the controversial practice would keep the populations in check and reduce the risks of attacks on humans, he said.
'Human beings took the eggs for 40,000 years. You've stopped the human being from taking the eggs,' he said.
'Not one single one of the 300,000 crocodiles in North Queensland has ever got shot. If I've got a crocodile on my cattle station, I'm not even allowed to remove them.
'They're territorial. The mother has 60 little crocodiles. Well, they got to find a home and all North Queensland is territorialised now, so all they can do is move south.'
A suspected crocodile sighting in the Noosa River on the Sunshine Coast in July has reignited debate about crocodile management in Queensland.
Images captured by local fisherman James Graham through a sonar fish-finder of a crocodile-like figure on the riverbed have gone viral and made national news headlines.
'If I was in my normal fishing spots, a couple of hundred meters north, that's what a croc looks like,' he said.
'The thought (of a crocodile in the Noosa River) is truly absurd.'
Dr Ross Dwyer, crocodile expert with the University of the Sunshine Coast, said it would be possible for a crocodile to inhabit the Noosa River, but 'highly unlikely'.
'This would be the furthest south a crocodile has been spotted down here in over 100 years,' he said.
'During the 20th century, crocodiles were hunted so extensively they were pushed back in their range in Queensland, and what we're seeing is the crocodiles starting to expand back into that natural habitat again.
'The Noosa River could be good habitat if there wasn't all that built up area and the water was warmer.
'The crocodile population is expanding. The water is warming up and we are going to see more of them in these southern parts of the range.
'They do have an important role in these waterways and it's something that we need to be proud of in Australia.'
Queensland Parks and Wildlife rangers shot a crocodile found in the Mary River near Maryborough in February.
"(Shooting) is certainly one of the tools in the toolbox and we do employ it in situations where public safety (is affected by) the risk of the crocodile persisting in the area," a spokesman told the ABC.