Katter makes brazen call for bigger military presence in the north, teens to be trained

Kennedy MP Bob Katter has called for thousands of troops to be stationed in Mt Isa and for teens to be trained to shoot.

KENNEDY MP Bob Katter has reiterated his desire to see a new army base constructed in Mount Isa while calling for Australia’s teenagers to be trained in weapon handling.

Mr Katter had previously called on the government to back the proposal in August of 2020, and again requested the move in a letter to Defence Minister Peter Dutton.

“There needs to be a full battalion of at least one thousand men stationed in Mount Isa,” Mr Katter said.

Kennedy MP Bob Katter. Source: Supplied

“We also need tanks and armoured personnel carriers equipped with rocket and missile capacity.

“It’s a city with the appropriate infrastructure and the housing can be built at virtually no cost at all, with cavity block construction. The cost will be negligible.”

Mr Katter said the federal government should train 14-year-old children on how to use a rifle.

“Ukraine is holding back the Russian army with guerrilla warfare,” Mr Katter said.

“If we train our young people and give them a rifle, then Australia will also have a guerrilla army ready to defend our country.”

Mr Katter described Australia’s north as ‘an empty land’ and said the move would cause the population to expand.

“If you put one-thousand soldiers in Mount Isa, the population of the town will grow to 40,000 people.

“We are an empty land, apart from a narrow strip of coastline from Cairns down to Melbourne and around to Adelaide. In the area that is barely populated, is all our gold, all our iron-ore, all our coal and most of our water. How will you defend and keep it if no-one is living there?”

Originally published as Katter makes brazen call for bigger military presence in the north, teens to be trained