The Prime Minister of Australia and his cabinet were elected at Drummond Memorial Public School, Armidale, on Tuesday morning, under the eye of Member for New England the Hon. Barnaby Joyce.
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The Prime Minister's term was one of the shortest on record - a quarter of an hour, less than Frank Forde's week in 1945.
The Prime Minister was also rather short - and young. 'And you don't feel surprised when he tells you he's only 11.'
Mr Joyce was giving Year 5 and 6 students a crash course in parliamentary democracy, an insider's look at the political system.
"People need it explained to them at a young age ... how lucky they are to live in a democracy where they can vote for the things they want; how important their freedoms are; and how as a nation they've been fought for and protected," Mr Joyce said.
"They probably forget about 70 per cent of it, but they'll remember enough to get some rudimentary ideas about how the nation works. You'd hope that later on, they will understand what they're voting for, and why they're voting for it."
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Drummond Memorial Public School normally sends its older pupils to Parliament House in Canberra every second year - but the drought means many parents can't afford to this year, principal Julianne Crompton said. Having a prominent politician visit was a boon.
"We really appreciate Barnaby giving that time to come in and meet the kids," Mrs Crompton said. "He was brilliant with them; he kept them entertained, but got the message across very strongly about what he does, what politics do, and how to be respectful of people's decisions.
"A lot of children today don't understand [politics], or they hear little bits about it in their family. Now they can see a person who's in the job, how he got there, what he's been doing."
School captains Riley Burton and Marie Bowden enjoyed meeting Mr Joyce - even if they were slightly daunted at first.
"It was very nerve-wracking, but it was fun!" Riley said.
Mr Joyce explained how elections, the Prime Minister and cabinet, and the House of Representatives worked, and the difference between democracy and autocracy. (Worryingly, some budding young dictators thought autocracy would be a great idea.)
He then took questions without notice. Some wanted to know his stance on the big issues. Did he think people get fair wages? A: Some get paid too much, some don't get paid enough, and - an unpopular view with some of his colleagues - unemployment benefits are too low.
What was his view of poverty? A: People in country areas, like his native Woolbrook, have little access to services; in his opinion, the National Party is there to serve the poorest, not the richest, and look after those doing it tough.
On homeless people? What was the federal government doing about pollution? (A: Working with other countries through international agreements, and trying to minimise pollution without sending everybody broke or the price of power through the roof.) What types of courts does Australia have?
Others wanted to know his opinion of POTUS. Q: If Donald Trump were the president of Australia, would Barnaby Joyce vote for him? Did he think Trump was wrong and rude? A: People in the United States, Mr Joyce diplomatically replied, voted for Trump, so he had to respect that choice. Yes, Trump was sometimes rude, but not always; Mr Joyce had concerns about some of Trump's remarks; on the other hand, unemployment rates were low, and the economy worked fine.
And what was it like to have been deputy and acting prime minister? At the age of 10, Mr Joyce told the kids, he knew he wanted to enter politics and become Prime Minister; the rest of his class had laughed.
The day he was acting prime minister, he sent a photo back to his school to say: "You can do it; if you want to, you can be that person; anyone can!"
He told the Drummond students of how he won both a Senate seat in Queensland (from One Nation) and a House of Reps seat in New England - the first person in Australia's history to do so - and his rise to the political heights.
"And then the wheels fell off... The back bench," he said wryly, "is not much fun, but I'm doing my best!"
Hopefully all the students, Mr Joyce told them, would want to be involved in politics.
"It's your country. Later on, all your parents and all the teachers, unfortunately, are going to retire; some will die. And who's going to run the country when we're all gone? YOU! You're going to run it!"
Young people, Mr Joyce said, could go from their primary school to become leaders of the country, as he had from Woolbrook Public School.
"You've just got to desire it, and put your mind to it," Mr Joyce said. "It's a really good thing because your nation needs people to want to do the job and do it well."
Did Riley and Marie want to go into politics? "Maybe," Riley said; "I want to be the same as him!"
"I do," Marie said, her eye on the Families and Social Services portfolio; "I want to help the elderly people with their pension."
Mrs Crompton said she was pleased to see children thinking: 'OK, I could possibly follow in Barnaby's shoes, and become a politician or a local member'.
"They're our future," she said. "They need to know how politics work; how to make decisions; how to be a leader; how to step up, to have that confidence that yes, they can also become the Prime Minister; that they can do something and be worthwhile in their community.
"They're going to be of voting age soon, so they need to understand who they're voting for, and how to make it work for themselves and for their family. Hopefully maybe one of them might actually be the Prime Minister! So we'll just wait and see how much they take on, but it's good to see that leadership."
Thankfully, she said, only a few wanted to be autocrats.