Protesters climb on top of Canberra’s Parliament House

The incident happened on Thursday just after 10am (AEST), when at least four masked demonstrators somehow made their way to the top of the structure.

They unfurled a large black banner with the slogan in white writing “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and “no peace on stolen land”.

Another hung under the Australian Coat of Arms read “war Crimes enabled here”.

Sky News Australia has reporters on the scene and will bring you live rolling coverage of the protest. Subscribe to the stream here.

Officers can be seen at the front of the building monitoring the group.

Stunned visitors, including school kids, wandered past glancing at the demonstrators as they entered Parliament House, which is a tourist spot in the national’s capital.

One of the protesters then read out a speech from his phone.

Sky News Australia’s Canberra reporter Cameron Reddin said the group were chanting about topics such as Palestine and Julian Assange.

The demonstrators also made about half a dozen paper aeroplanes, which had slogans written on them, and threw them from the roof to the media.

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Australian Federal Police Association President Alex Caruana, who was nearby for other matters, told Sky News specialist police are forming a plan to resolve the situation “peacefully” and to ensure protesters and members of the public are not injured.

“Ultimately if they’re not posing a massive threat to themselves or to the public, then I think there might be a little bit to play out,” he said.

ACT Police told SkyNews.com.au that protestors inside the premises had been removed, but a “small number remain in unsafe locations at the front of the building”.

“ACT Policing and AFP Protective Service Officers are responding to the protest activity at Parliament House,” a spokeswoman said in a short statement.

No arrests have been made. 

Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce said there are “serious questions” to answer about how the incident – which happened ahead of the final day of parliament before the winter break and comes as Senator Fatima Payman is set to quit Labor – occurred.

“We should have an inquiry. Find out exactly who… you should get them down and go through them like a packet of salts and find out everything about them,” he said to Sky News Australia host Kieran Gilbert on News Day.

“This was planned. How did they plan it?”

Liberal Senator James Paterson echoed the remarks of Mr Joyce, adding that tens of millions of dollars had been spent to fortify and protect Parliament House.

“If someone can get access to the roof, then their access to the building is much easier than it otherwise would be. So it’s very serious that these people have been able to do so and the security mechanisms in this building have failed to prevent it,” he said.

“These are protesters, they don’t appear to have any violent intent. But if protesters can do this, then someone with violent intent could also do this.”

The incident comes just hours after the annual Midwinter Ball, a social event for politicians, corporate chiefs and journalists to raise money for charity.

Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe turned heads wearing a white dress which was emblazoned with the slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”.