Protesters scale Parliament House, dye water feature red

The Senate approves a security upgrade of Parliament House, following disruptive protests.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has called for an overhaul of Parliament House security, following yesterday’s and this morning’s disruptive protests.

The Senate and House earlier today passed legislation for a security upgrade, which has been planned for months and was not a response to the protests.

Mr Dutton said there needed to be another look at security provisions in light of recent events.

“I think there are a lot of questions to be answered here, and we need to have a look at security around Parliament House because we have the potential of others who are watching this activity and realising how easily these people have intruded upon Parliament House and the area at the front of Parliament House and I’ve got no doubt that the Speaker and the President of the Senate will be looking at it very quickly and very closely,” he told 2GB’s Ray Hadley this morning, as abseilers scaled the front of Parliament House.

Mr Dutton said there also needed to be an inquiry into yesterday’s interruption of Question Time.

“All of that is obviously a separate incident and that needs to be enquired into urgently as well, because there are thousands of people who come through Parliament House each sitting day, including lots of schoolchildren, and we need a safe environment and that’s up to the Speaker and the presiding officer, but I think there’ll be a big review now of security at Parliament House,” he said.

Mr Dutton also hit out at Labor-appointed Queensland magistrate Trevor Morgan, who had praised a woman who participated in yesterday’s protest for climbing onto the roof of Mr Dutton’s electorate office as part of another protest about offshore detention.

In finding the woman, Kelly Purnell, guilty over the roof incident, Mr Morgan told her that he would be proud to have her as a daughter.

“I think this magistrate frankly needs to come out today and condemn these actions,” Mr Dutton said.

“In his closing words he said words to the effect that he’d be proud of their actions if they were his daughters.

“They are essentially words of encouragement. She’s gone out and committed a similar offence it seems, from what I’ve seen publicly.

“I think the magistrate needs to answer these questions and you can’t just make these words of encouragement in a court. You’re supposed to be providing a message of deterrence.”

Mr Dutton also slammed Greens senator Lee Rhiannon who brought this morning’s protesters chocolates, and Greens leader Richard Di Natale for moving a motion in favour of the protesters.

“Lots of the messages, incidentally, that these protesters are talking about are exactly the same messages that members of the Labor Party were out there with: ‘close the camps’, and ‘bring them home’.

“This is the problem that Bill Shorten’s got, this is why they’re divided down the middle on border protection policy, and why Bill Shorten must be pulling his hair out because he can’t show the leadership to pull these people into line, and these Labor members and the Green members just provide encouragement to these protesters when they should be hearing a clear message from all of us in Parliament House, that they are in the vast, vast minority, and the vast majority of Australians want us to have strong and secure borders and that’s what this government’s doing.”

Senate approves security upgrade

The Senate has passed legislation for a security upgrade of Parliament House, following yesterday and this morning’s disruptive protests.

The same legislation, which has been planned for months and was not a response to the protests, passed the House of Representatives this morning.

Only the Greens and crossbench Senator Derryn Hinch opposed it in the Senate.

The motion passed on voices in the House.

The proposed works are for security enhancements which include a physical perimeter using fencing and landscaping, replacement of framing and glazing at the northern, eastern and western entrances, an additional bollard at the eastern and western entrances, and poles for additional CCTV security cameras.

“Over the top”

Bill Shorten has described yesterday and this morning’s protests at Capital Hill as “over-the-top” after the aactivists who yesterday forced a shutdown of Question Time returned to scale Parliament House today.

“We will not allow protesters to stop this Parliament from functioning,” he said. “We’ve got to get the balance right.”

The Opposition Leader attacked the Coalition for leaving the chamber during yesterday’s Question Time protest.

“They did the wrong thing,” he said.

“What those protesters wanted to do was stop our parliament functioning and the Liberals have now given the green light.

“If you protest enough, they will leave the chamber.

“That’s why we stayed.”

Protesters stage comeback

Today’s activists abseiled on to the front of Parliament House and dyed the water feature in front of Parliament red.

Members of Whistleblowers, Activists and Citizens Alliance scaled the wall above the main entrance at around 8am, unfurling a banner which read; “Close the bloody camps now #justice4refugees”.

Another protest! Same group from yesterday has abseiled onto Parliament and dyed water feature red #auspol pic.twitter.com/gjoEr2s8Ww

— Rachel Baxendale (@rachelbaxendale) November 30, 2016

A dozen others waded calf-deep into a forecourt pond, holding placards with slogans calling for the immediate closure of offshore immigration detention camps. They dyed the water red to represent turnbacks at sea, holding signs reading “Turnbacks are murder” and “Blood on your hands”. Others gathered on the edge providing support.

Protesters dyed the water feature red. Picture: Kym Smith

The protesters said their latest action was a continuation of Wednesday’s interruption of the House of Representatives.

Spokeswoman Zianna Fuad said their action had been planned for a while. “You should be expecting widespread protest until the camps are closed,” she told reporters.

The two protesters who abseiled down the front of the building were experienced climbers, she said.

“I actually think we’ve tried all our other avenues of civil debate.”

The protesters removed their #justice4refugees banner minutes before a 10.30am police deadline for their voluntary departure. They had refused to co-operate or talk to a police negotiator who tried to coax them down before a search and rescue offices forced them to move.

Abseiling protesters voluntarily pack up after police announced they would come and get them #auspol @australian pic.twitter.com/vi7yend4jC

— Rosie Lewis (@rosieslewis) November 30, 2016

As the protest ended, Phil Evans, a spokesman for Whistleblowers, Activists and Citizens Alliance, claimed the US resettlement deal announced by the government earlier this month was a “smokescreen” that could present an opportunity for a permanent “prison camp” to be established on Nauru.

Organisers said protesters took time off work to be in Canberra over the last couple of days, and ordinarily were employed as teachers, nurses, midwives, environmental scientists and administrators. Others worked for Friends of the Earth while one person was a cook based in Tasmania.

After being slammed as “idiots” and “Kmart Castros” by Coalition politicians, Evans said: “A few errant comments from parliamentarians is not going to deter us. They’re responsible for the murder, the abuse of refugees, of children, of women, of men. This has got to stop and we’ll continue as long as it takes.

“The pool (out the front of Parliament House) was dyed red with the blood to symbolise the refugees that we don’t even know how many have died because of these policies, because the government has become so lacking in transparency around what is going on with this. This is un-transparent abuse of human rights and it’s got to stop.”

Police escort members of Whistleblowers Activists and Citizens Alliance away after their protest. Picture; AAP.

Greens senator Lee Rhiannon, who offered the protesters chocolates congratulated them ahead of a Senate sitting during which Greens immigration spokesman Nick McKim is expected to move a motion of congratulations on their disruption of Question Time yesterday.

Senator Rhiannon said she had no issue with protesters scaling the front of Parliament House, and called their intervention yesterday “courageous”.

“Thank you for what you’ve done,” she told the protesters.

“It’s just so amazing, the whole visuals of it. There’s a lot of people who are not sure what to do and how to make it (offshore detention and boat turnbacks) stop, and I’m sure it’ll go around the world, the message to close the camps.”

Senator Rhiannon denied that it had been inappropriate for the protesters to disrupt Question Time.

“What’s not appropriate is the way the Turnbull government is treating refugees,” she said.

“We’re breaking our international obligations, so that’s where the problem lies.

“That’s where the laws are being broken. These people are courageous. These people are showing what this government, this parliament should do.”

Senator Rhiannon said she had no problem with protesters scaling the front of Parliament House.

“It’s a non-violent protest,” she said.

“Those people are not impacting, they’re not endangering anybody, they’re taking a message to the world, that we need to bring justice to the refugees.”

Senator Rhiannon said she did not believe police and security time was being wasted.

“What’s wasting the money is the billions of dollars this government puts into these offshore processing,” she said.

“This protest needed to be held today. It’s incredibly important. I can’t congratulate the protesters more. They are speaking for so many Australians. This is absolutely critical action.”

Senator Rhiannon said the protesters were not responsible for a tightening of Parliament House security.

“The protesters are certainly not responsible,” she said.

“We need to always ensure that this parliament, that was built as a people’s parliament, stays that way.”

Senator Rhiannon said she had not been aware of the protest until it took place this morning, and was not aware of yesterday’s protest in advance.

“I only heard about it after it was well on. I was absorbed in parliament in the Senate yesterday,” she said.

Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister James McGrath labelled the protesters “grubs”.

“These people are selfish, they’re being sooks and quite frankly they should wake up to themselves and get a job,” he told Sky News.

“They ruined the experience for so many other Australians who came to Parliament House to see their representatives working.” Earlier, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he would never be convinced parliament’s public galleries should be closed despite Wednesday’s interruption. “Incidents like this are regrettable and they will happen from time to time but people should not feel they are free to interfere with the parliament,” he said.

Speaker Tony Smith movd a motion to upgrade Parliament House security. He told parliament a raft of proposed upgrade works, including new perimeter fencing and more poles for CCTV cameras, had been approved by the lower house.

He acknowledged the changes will impact the original design intent of Parliament House, but they will not change the way people enter the building or access the roof.

“All enhancements, those already completed, and those being proposed today, are the result of advice from our security agencies and based on many months of consideration,” he said.

Canberra man Stephen Hyde, a university scientist, joined the protesters after hearing about them on radio. “The more people from different sorts of walks of life, the more so-called ordinary people that come here and make a very simple statement about protecting people’s lives who are vulnerable, the more other Australians will listen,” he said.

With AAP