Protesters demanding the closure of Australian government-run camps in Nauru and Manus interrupt address by prime minister in Melbourne

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Protesters urging the Australian government to close offshore detention camps on Nauru and Manus Island have interrupted a major economic speech by prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull.

Turnbull was addressing the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) in Melbourne on Wednesday, demanding cooperation from the Labor opposition for proposed budget savings.

About 15 minutes in protesters interrupted the speech with cries of “for God’s sake, Malcolm, close the fucking camps”.

One protester successfully stormed the stage with a sign that read “FFS [for fuck’s sake] close the bloody camps”.

Video filmed by protesters contained the chant “Malcolm Turnbull, shame on you, cancel Wilson’s contracts too,” a reference to Wilson Security which runs the camps.

Refugee advocacy group Whistleblowers, Activists and Citizens Alliance (WACA) claimed credit for the protest.

“We interrupted @TurnbullMalcolm because you are complicit in abuse of innocent children. FFS,” it said in a tweet.



WACA activists have staged a number of high profile protests over immigration detention, including climbing the Melbourne Arts Centre spire in February.

Audio temporarily cut out on broadcasts of the event, while tweets showed security was quick to usher protesters out of the crowded ballroom.



Lucille Keen (@lucillekeen) Protestors shake up @TurnbullMalcolm @ceda_news lunch #auspol pic.twitter.com/1m8pEKmWX2

The protest comes one week after Guardian Australia published more than 2,000 leaked reports of incidents at Australia’s offshore detention centre at Nauru, including many detailing assaults, sexual assaults and self-harm.

The Nauru files have led to calls for a parliamentary inquiry and renewed calls to close offshore detention.

Turnbull did not directly address the protest. After about a minute, he resumed the speech discussing the level of Australia’s debt.

Just moments after the protest he quoted the national anthem: “We sing Advance Australia Fair – but there is nothing more unfair than saddling our children and our grandchildren with mountains of debt that we have created because our generation could not live within its means.”

Turnbull has only publicly addressed the Nauru files on one occasion, telling reporters last Wednesday the incident reports would be “carefully examined to see if there are any complaints ... or issues ... that were not properly addressed.”

He said the Australian government supported Nauru in ensuring the welfare of people in detention.

Earlier on Wednesday opposition leader, Bill Shorten, said people held in detention in Nauru were “indirectly in the care of Australia” and it was appropriate for parliament to investigate alleged abuse.

“I don’t think they can be swept under the carpet and I don’t think we can ignore the fairly significant release of a whole lot of files and complaints,” he said.

Shorten said Labor was as committed as the Coalition government to stopping people smugglers but “we don’t think that ... people smuggling should be used as an excuse to keep people in indefinite detention on Nauru”.

“If there is genuinely no problem here, then they’ve got nothing to hide, have they?

“If there is something to see here, if there are problems here, I think we need to deal with it, don’t we?”