n MP has spoken of his bizarre desire for young teens to be armed with guns and train in 24/7 gun ranges to prevent any hypothetical invasion of the “treasure trove” he calls Australia.
Gun-toting politician Bob Katter, 76, was asked to elaborate on his policy to train secondary school students to handle heavy assault rifles and be ready to fight any threat to the country.
“How are you going to defend this country?” Mr Katter told Sky News Australia.
“You’ve got no fuel, you’ve got no petrol, you’ve got no missiles, you’ve got no army.
“There’s no way you are going to hold – if someone decides to take Australia.
“If you have five million rifles in Australia, and if [you have] people knowing how to use them … then you have to have a hundred million man army to invade Australia, and hold it.”
Mr Katter said teens could go to inner-city firing ranges which would be “working 24 hours a day, every day of the year” to accommodate for the training.
“That’s where we want to go,” he said.
“Look at the aggression of China in the south Pacific; Do they want a little island in the south pacific? They want the treasure trove which is Australia,” he explained.
His demands came amidst a climate crisis in Australia.
Australia’s densely populated east coast has been grappling with record floods as a protracted La Nina weather pattern brings abnormally high rainfall and wind, causing rivers to overflow and leaving thousands of homes uninhabitable.
It come two years after bushfires that were deemed the worst in a generation.