Leave weapons to the professionals says PM

Politicians clowning with explosive ordnance - what could possibly go wrong?

Inspecting a table laden with weaponry at Townsville's Lavarack Barracks, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull commented that he was a great believer in leaving the handling of weapons to the professionals.

In the background, local MP Ewen Jones was seen to nonchalantly lift a hand grenade from the table, casually throwing it in the air and catching it one-handed.

This prompted a flurry of jokes on social media.

Tasmanian Liberal MP and former army officer Andrew Nikolic commented that this was definitely not a live grenade "unlike Bill Shorten's negative gearing policy".

Shadow defence spokesman Stephen Conroy said he would be confident the army didn't put live hand grenades on display.

"If there's a serious point, it just shows that Malcolm Turnbull says one thing and the coalition are doing something else. So that's just par for the course," he told Sky News.

Subsequently, Mr Jones tweeted that he was simply noting that it was a similar weight to a cricket ball.