Greens join climate sit-in

The demonstrators were joined by members of the Australian Greens during the noisy demonstration, including leader Richard Di Natale, Tasmanian Senator Peter Whish-Wilson and NSW Senator Lee Rhiannon.

Australian Federal Police officers and Parliament House security rushed to the scene but were significantly outnumbered by the crowd.

However, the demonstrators were gradually removed from the sit-in that was staged in a restricted area, inside the front entrance of Parliament House.

The protest started about midday and coincided with the United Nationals 2015 climate change conference in Paris that kicked-off on Monday and runs until December 11 seeing world leaders gather to set targets to cut global greenhouse gas emissions.

Senator Di Natale thanked the protesters for their commitment to raising concerns about climate change and commitment to leaving the planet “inhabitable” for future generations.

The sit-in also diversified to other areas of environmental concern including land-use conflicts between agriculture and Coal Seam Gas mining and was conducted largely without incident.

An elderly protester in a wheelchair was one of the last to leave the peaceful demonstration which was spearheaded by a sign that said, “Putting people ahead of polluters for Paris”.

On Twitter, Senator Rhiannon described it as a “peaceful protest”.

Greens Melbourne MP Adam Bandt also took part in the sit-in and said on Twitter, “Chanting 'people before polluters', the #peoplesparliament is taking a stand for climate action”.