Every time Bob Katter walks past the portrait of Charles McDonald, the first member for Kennedy who became Labor’s first Speaker of the House in 1910, he salutes the splendidly moustachioed pioneer with a raised fist in honour of “the great man”.

On Thursday, Katter was in the hall to unveil his own portrait, commissioned to sit alongside the likenesses of royals, governors, speakers and prime ministers, to honour his half-century of service as an MP – 18 years in Queensland’s parliament, and then 32 years so far representing his vast, far-north Queensland electorate.

Early rumours that Katter would attend the event in his inflatable pig suit were dashed: he wore the black three-piece suit that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told the crowd was inspired “by Bob’s belief that James Garner

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