Andrew Laming ejected from Parliament after pouring fuel on himself in chamber

Updated

Liberal MP Andrew Laming has been thrown out of Parliament and scolded by the Speaker for bringing a jar of black "bunker" fuel into the chamber and pouring it out onto his hand, in protest at the pollution left by cruise ship liners.

On Tuesday night, the member for the Brisbane-based seat of Bowman was speaking in the Parliament's Federation Chamber, calling on cruise ship operators to "clean up their act", when he presented a container of the fuel to back his argument.

"This stuff should not be burnt close to where people live, this stuff is revolting," he told the chamber, pouring the fuel onto his hands, rubbing them together and spilling the fuel on the desk and floor.

Speaker Bronwyn Bishop has taken the Government backbencher to task over the "reckless" and "serious" incident and suspended him from the House for 24 hours.

"In his remarks the member himself acknowledged the dangerous nature of the material, setting aside the member's own offence in making use of props it is highly disorderly to bring dangerous and flammable substances into each of the chambers," she said.

"I consider the member's actions to be totally disorderly, disrespectful of the House and the Federation Chamber and potentially dangerous to the health and safety of members and staff of the Federation Chamber."

Ms Bishop asked him to apologise.

"I do apologise," he told Parliament.

However, he has since released a statement, in which he stands by his actions.

"If Australian families have to breathe it, I don't back down bringing it to Parliament to make the point," he said.

"With other developed nations banning it in ports, it's long overdue to do the same thing in Australia."

Attendants were seen to try to help Dr Laming clean up the fuel spill and the Speaker confirmed the chamber had been damaged.

Topics: federal-parliament, parliament, government-and-politics, australia, qld, redland-bay-4165

First posted