Aussies in ‘sticky’ protest
BOAT PEOPLE ISSUE: Activists superglue hands to Parliament railings to demand closure of camps
PROTESTERS demanding the closure of offshore detention camps for boat people disrupted Parliament yesterday with some supergluing their hands to railings in the public gallery.
Speaker Tony Smith suspended question time in what cabinet minister Christopher Pyne said was the most serious intrusion into Parliament in 20 years. The group of around 30 activists began chanting loudly soon after the session began, shouting “close the camps” and “where is your moral compass?”
Some superglued their hands to the viewing gallery railings as security tried to remove them, with guards using sanitiser to peel them free. They were eventually pulled from the chamber, some forcibly.
The protesters, from the Whistleblowers Activists and Citizens Alliance, said offshore detention represented a “state of emergency”.
“Parliament shutdown by @akaWACA #closethecamps #bringthemhere,” the group said on Twitter.
“I wondered whether we could press on... we could not,” said Smith in explaining why he took the rare step of suspending Parliament, which resumed 40 minutes later when the protesters were cleared.
The same group stormed the stage and forced Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to stop speaking during a major economic address in Melbourne in August.
United Nations special rapporteur Francois Crepeau this month said Australia’s “punitive approach” to boat people had tarnished its human rights record. AFP
removing a protester from the House of Representatives in Canberra yesterday. Agency pix