The four protesters who spent an hour and a half atop the building and hung banners,including one beneath the coat of arms reading “war crimes … enabled here”,were escorted off the roof by security shortly before midday. Three men and one woman were arrested and banned from Parliament House for two years.
During a later Senate committee hearing,Kershaw said that as well as the protests at Parliament House,a separate group had made false reports of protests happening elsewhere to send police away.
“There are some actual deliberate actions this particular group has taken … to use diversionary tactics to move very,very quickly,” he said.
Asked how the protesters got on the roof,Deputy Commissioner Krissy Barrett said they were able to climb the fence at the top of the grassed area on the side of the building.
The protests come after a fractious fortnight in parliament during which Labor senator Fatima Payman crossed the floor last week to vote in favour of a Greens motion to recognise Palestinian statehood,beforeresigning from the party on Thursday to sit as an independent.
Parliament rises for its winter break on Thursday evening,with the next parliamentary sitting day on August 12. There has been heightened concern about the security of MPs,with several having their electorateoffices vandalised by pro-Palestinian protesters in recent weeks.