With teal independents and a resurgent Clive Palmer sucking up all the airtime, no wonder Bob Katter’s spent this election campaign calling for Australian school children to be armed. Or, at the very least, taught to use rifles stored in their schoolyard armouries to counter the growing menace from China.

Left-field contributions to public debate are kind of Katter’s thing. But the independent MP for Kennedy, who’ll almost certainly be re-elected, has more reason than most to look fondly on the small-arms industry.