MP Bob Katter says Australia must defend itself against ‘aggressive’ Chinese Communist party threat

A veteran MP has slammed the federal government’s failure to defend Australia, saying high school kids should be trained to use guns.

Veteran MP Bob Katter says Australia should defend itself against an “aggressive” Chinese Communist Party regime, with every high school student trained on how to use a rifle.

The Queensland MP slammed the federal government for leaving Australia ill-equipped to defend itself, saying it had failed to develop arms, sovereign fuel security and missiles to protect itself from the perceived threat.

It comes after Australia slammed China’s new security pact with Solomon Islands as “deeply disappointing”, insisting it must never be used to establish a Chinese military base.

“We can’t compete in a buying war with China. It’s basically the biggest economy on earth and we are a little tiny country. We can’t compete and we don’t compete,” Mr Katter said.

“Look at Ukraine holding off Russia; one of the biggest armies in the world. It should be an inspiration to all of us.

“In four-and-a-half years you haven't built a rifle, a machine gun, you’ve stupidly built patrol boats that has only got machine gun on ’em.

“Jeez, that’ll terrify the Chinese, having that machine gun on those patrol boats. $60 million for a patrol boat that has a machine gun on it. It should have had 40 missiles on it.”

Bob Katter MP slammed the federal government for failing to prepare the country to defend itself and endorsed high school students being trained to use rifles. Picture: Nigel Hallett

Mr Katter said all Australian high school students should be trained on how to use a rifle.

“Every boy and girl in high school should be trained how to use a rifle, and those rifles should be stored in school armouries,” the firebrand independent said.

“We have three days fuel supply. The government will argue it’s 30 days, but there will be kilometre-long queues at service stations if China embargoes our oil.”

Mr Katter said the crossbench in Canberra agreed on the need to tackle fuel sovereignty and security.

“The four-point plan includes Australian made ethanol, turning suburban waste into diesel (as is being done in Gladstone by Southern Oils), banning the export of Australia oil so that we refine it here, and Australian made electric vehicles for the cities,” he said.

Originally published as MP Bob Katter says Australia must defend itself against ‘aggressive’ Chinese Communist party threat