Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This morning we saw some Australians exercising their democratic right to protest out the front of this building. Unfortunately some of them did not do so in a respectful way, and they deserve to have the book thrown at them. It is absolutely every Australian's right to protest and have their views heard, but it is not their right to deface public property and it is not their right to come into the heart of our democracy and graffiti their own views on the front of the building, to the exclusion of Australians with different views. This is an absolute disgrace that has been abetted and facilitated by the Australian Greens in this chamber. They should hang their heads in shame that they are associated with people who show such a lack of respect for other Australians and for the institutions of this democracy.

The reality is that the protesters who were out there today don't want to change the climate; that's not their goal. They're not there to change the climate. They're there to change our government, to change our democracy. They do not support democracy. They do not support our systems of government. The reason we know that is that, if those protesters were serious about changing the climate and reducing emissions, they would have walked down to the Chinese Communist Party embassy, just down the road, and protested against the biggest carbon emitter in this place. But they don't do that, because a lot of those activists and some of the people in the Australian Greens kind of like communism. I reckon they're kind of in favour of it. That's why they're not protesting against communists. They're not really worried about the climate; they're wanting to radically change our society and to do so in a way that shows no respect for their fellow Australians. Anyone associating with these vandals and juveniles should be denounced, and anyone who does not denounce them deserves no respect in the Australian democratic political system.