Out of the hat Party of one? ... The former national general secretary Bernard Gaynor reveals that when Bob Katter, above, was dividing his fledgling political party into geographic zones after last year's Queensland election, he simply used a whiteboard marker to draw lines on a laminated map of the state. "I wasn't allowed to change the zones," Gaynor says, citing an example of how Katter's Australian Party operates as a "one-man band." Bob Katter and supporters rally at a Parliament House flash mob last year. It's an insight into the difficulties the party has had as it attempts to prepare for its first federal election outing where it aims to run candidates in every seat Australia-wide. Damaging internal brawls over gay rights have observers wondering whether the party - part-protectionist, part-populist - will make serious inroads or implode in the lead-up to the September 14 poll. Apart from bruising public disputes over whether the marriage law should be changed and how "tolerant" the party should be on social issues, there are questions over whether a party structure is compatible with the style of Katter, who has forged an image as a maverick who speaks his mind and goes his own way. Bob Katter announces the party's registration in 2011. Party officials are not always sure what Katter will say when he does a media conference and are all too aware of the dangers of any misstep. But the party's national director, Aidan McLindon - who as a member of the punk band Kill TV stormed the stage of the Big Brother finale in 2005 in a protest against exploitative entertainment, brushes off the stories about the party spinning out of control. McLindon briefly served as a Liberal National Party state MP in Queensland, having outpolled Pauline Hanson in 2009 when she attempted her political revival in a rural seat. He suggests any publicity is good publicity. "Yeah, OK, we've had a bit of a domestic that spilled into the public arena, all parties do that ... and [in] particular new ones," he says. Katter's Australian Party is not the only new "fringe" party seeking to tap into rising dissatisfaction with the major parties in Australia. The anti-multiculturalism Rise Up Australia Party - headed by the Victorian evangelical preacher Daniel Nalliah - says it will target 52 lower house seats and endorse 12 Senate candidates across the nation. Meanwhile CANdo, a newer, smaller conservative mirror of the progressive GetUp! activist group, has vowed to ramp up its campaigning in the lead-up to the federal election and plans to back candidates who share its key policies. While they may differ in key areas, in each case the participants argue that Australians have grown increasingly tired of the Labor and Liberal parties and are looking for alternatives. Political experts say it is always hard for new minor parties to get elected. Rise Up is dismissed as having no chance, but Katter's Australian Party could be competitive in some Senate races. A professor in political science at the Queensland University of Technology, Clive Bean, says while Katter's profile is strongest in Queensland, he also has appeal around the nation. Bean, an expert in voting behaviour, says the electoral system makes it "extremely hard" for minor parties to gain a foothold in the House of Representatives, but chances are better in the Senate, where quotas allow candidates with lower support to clinch seats. Labor is rumoured to be considering preferencing Katter's Australian Party over the LNP in Queensland, which would increase the minor party's chances of gaining upper house representation. And in recent weeks leaked Coalition discussion papers have been big on regional development - with ideas such as using incentives to lure people to northern Australia and building new dams. The make-up of the Senate is important because it will determine whether the expected next Coalition government would be able to pass legislation through both houses. Regardless of how many seats Katter's Australian Party ends up winning, McLindon says its power lies in its ability to do preference deals with the major parties and influence who wins government. "I think we're going to be a formidable force given the fact more than 80 of the 150 seats have a margin of 5 per cent and both the ALP and LNP are going to be desperately crawling to us on preferences in those seats," he says. Bean says while Rise Up's chances are dim, it may be trying to tap into the "One Nation space" - a reference to the party headed by Hanson that upset the mainstream and, at its peak in 1998, polled 9 per cent of the national vote. The same year saw Hanson's party win 11 seats in the Queensland state election - with 23 per cent of the primary vote. While Bean has noticed "dissatisfaction" towards the major parties in recent times, the race often tightens in the lead-up to elections. "Katter's party, for example, which is the one you might expect to come in with a bit of a surge in this election, seems to be in a degree of internal disarray ... and I suspect if that gets worse or they don't sort that out and present a reasonably cohesive front to the electorate, their appeal might drop," he says. There's no doubt that Katter's Australian Party - which gathered for a critical, day-long management meeting on Friday - has appeared increasingly erratic in recent weeks. In January, Katter was talking about fielding candidates in 70 or 80 House of Representatives seats. The next day he vowed the party would run in all 150 electorates. Earlier this month, Katter endorsed the theatre director Steven Bailey to run for the Senate in the ACT. McLindon, acting on orders of the party president Max Menzel, soon asked Bailey to resign because the budding politician had voiced his support for same-sex marriage. Katter, the long-serving member for Kennedy in north Queensland, has tried to shift the focus away from gay-rights, saying candidates should focus on the key issues such as the market share of Woolworths and Coles and regulating the dairy industry to better support farmers. "If you're preoccupied by this in our party, we throw you out - we've established that and that goes both ways," Katter says. Gaynor, a Queensland Senate nominee who was suspended by the party in January after tweeting he would not let gay teachers educate his children, says Katter doesn't want to alienate potential voters but is dealing with the issue badly. He thinks, 'If I don't talk about it, people will stop talking about it,' but it draws people to ask the question more. Gaynor is indicative of the conservative base of the party that wants to stand by one of its stated core values that marriage should remain between a man and a woman. Peter Pyke, a former Labor MP and an eager early member of Katter's Australian Party, was among a small group of "concerned party members" who called for civil unions to be supported as an alternative to gay marriage. The group included the party's then president, Rowell Walton, and the former Queensland campaign director, Luke Shaw, who gained notoriety as the jury foreman in former National Party premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen's 1991 perjury trial that failed to reach a verdict. It was later revealed Shaw was a member of the Young Nationals. Gaynor, who tried to fight his suspension, says Katter should stop getting involved in every decision the party makes if it is to be successful in the long-term. According to McLindon, the party has about 3000 members with 100 new ones signing up each month, and it has lined up candidates for 17 out of the 30 seats in Queensland. It has received a total of 140 applications for Senate and lower house candidates across the nation - including "a lot" from NSW and Victoria. As Katter's Australian Party tries to extend its electoral foothold beyond Queensland, its potential rivals insist they're prepared for a spirited fight. The Northern Territory Country Liberal senator Nigel Scullion says he's ready to "take off the gloves" if a Katter candidate takes him on. I don't think the very small following KAP may have does anything outside of north Queensland. It's the bloke in the hat, he's well known; he's like everyone's granddad," Scullion says. Katter says he is confident of gaining multiple Senate seats, including outside Queensland, but stresses the need to put internal stumbles behind it. with Paddy Doulman