Australian Federal police will investigate how pro-Palestinian protesters managed to scale country’s Parliament House before unfurling banners above the front entrance, including one with a red triangle that glorifies Hamas, reported newspaper The Western Australian.
Four protestors are expected to be charged with Commonwealth trespass offences after the extraordinary security breach on Thursday morning, reported the paper.
As a result of the protest activity, Speaker of parliament Milton Dick limited access to Question Time on Thursday, and told MPs he had spoken with the AFP commissioner and had ordered an investigation into the day’s events and a wider review of security arrangements.
Australian PM Anthony Albanese declared those responsible should “feel the full force of the law”.
“Peaceful protest has an important place in our society but this was not a peaceful protest,” he said.
“These actions have done absolutely nothing to advance any cause, indeed they have hurt the cause that those engaged in this reckless activity believe they are advancing,” PM quoted by The Western Australian.
Country’s Opposition leader Peter Dutton thanked the AFP and welcomed the investigation, adding that “serious questions need to be answered about how these people were permitted entry into the building”.
“We are concerned that those flags were up there for at least 1.5 hours, and they should have been taken down immediately… It sends exactly the wrong message. We welcome the outcome, as belated as it was, and we hope never to see a repeat of it,” he said.
Mr Dutton and shadow foreign affairs minister Simon Birmingham had earlier written to Mr Dick and Senate President Sue Lines, urging a full investigation into the “security lapse”.
The protest came amid heightened domestic political tensions around the Middle East, and as senator Fatima Payman quit the Labor Party over the issue.
“This is not a protest of a normal nature,” Mr Dutton and Senator Birmingham wrote.
“This was a protest that was designed to inflict fear and instil chaos in Australia’s society.”
The protestors managed to jump the 2.6 metre security wall on the grass hill to the right of the building’s front entrance, before scampering onto the balcony overlooking the Parliament House forecourt.
The masked protestors then unfurled large black banners, which read “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, “West Papua, Iran, Afghanistan, Palestine – enabled here” and “No peace on stolen land, genocide since 1788”.
One of the four masked protesters read a lengthy statement, in which he accused the Federal Government of enabling and committing war crimes as a “lackey” of the United States, reported the Aussie paper
They also threw paper planes off the roof with their statement.
The protesters wanted to use July 4 — which is Independence Day in the US — to call for Australia to sever ties with America.