Climate change protesters have cost Australia's police forces millions of dollars and staff had to be diverted from road safety and domestic violence complaints to patrol last week's chaos.

Victoria Police Commander Tim Hansen said 16,000 patrol hours had been spent policing the Extinction Rebellion protests, which blocked traffic in Melbourne's CBD causing widespread disruption.

'It's had a huge impact on our resourcing out in the regions and out in the suburbs,' Commander Hansen told reporters on Sunday.

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WA Police with an Extinction Rebellion protester in Perth on Friday. Australia's state police forces have spent thousands of patrol hours policing the widespread disruptions last week

Scantily clad protesters put almost all on display on Saturday in Melbourne's Nudie Parade

WA Police have not yet provided an estimate of how many patrol hours they had to spend on last week's climate change protests in Perth (pictured) but Victoria Police revealed the disruptions cost them 16,000 hours with police having to be diverted from specialist units

The cost is thought to be at least $3million, the Herald Sun reported, although Victoria Police say the exact cost is still being determined.

'What I can say is the overtime budget is in the hundreds of thousands already,' Commander Hansen said.

Victoria Police will not try to make protesters pay for the cost of policing, however, as Commander Hansen said it was a community protest in a public space.

'The first gateway in considering whether user pays is applicable is there needs to be a level of commerciality,' he said.

Police had to be re-tasked from suburban patrol duties and from specialist units to cope with the mass disruption during which 111 people were arrested.

'Because of the need to resource this protest, we've had to take some resources away from those programs,' Commander Hansen said.

The sixth day of climate protests showed a lot more skin than previous demonstrations

Police remove a protester from the streets of Sydney last Monday at the start of the Extinction Rebellion week of blocking traffic in Australia's major capital cities. Police resources were stretched in Victoria and Queensland had to use 150 police officers per day for the protests

'Sustained and unplanned protest activity has seen a dilution of these policing programs.'

Queensland police said on Friday that more than 150 officers had to be deployed each day, arresting a total of 125 protesters during the week including several who glued themselves to the William Jolly Bridge in Brisbane's CBD on Friday.

'More than 150 general and specialist police have worked each day this week to deal with the unlawful behaviour undertaken by Extinction Rebellion protesters,' Acting Chief Superintendent Fleming said in a release on Friday.

Queensland Police told Daily Mail Australia on Monday that the total cost of policing Extinction Rebellion in South Brisbane and the Brisbane CBD last week had not yet been calculated but was estimated at more than $10,000, not including wages.

Daily Mail Australia understands this figure also does not include the cost of police at the watch house, or the cost of administrative staff.

'While the QPS still responded to emergency calls for service in the usual way, the re-direction of so many officers to policing Extinction Rebellion protestors did impact on the ability of the QPS to undertake proactive police activities designed to reduce crime and harm to the community,' a Queensland Police spokesperson said via email.

The disruptions also cost Queensland businesses thousands in lost productivity the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland said.

'On any given day, data from Tom Toms shows that $2.4 million is lost in productivity due to traffic and congestion – with protests of this magnitude, it swells to a loss of $3.5 million,' spokesman Dan Petrie told the Courier Mail.

Extinction Rebellion Southeast Queensland responded by saying the large police presence was not necessary because their protests were non-violent.

'We are seeing unprecedented bushfires and droughts due to climate change,' an Extinction Rebellion spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia via email.

'These disasters are already destroying businesses. Disruption is necessary to demand urgent climate action. XR is a non-violent movement, and the large police presence was unnecessary.'

Daily Mail Australia has asked for estimates of work hours from police forces in South Australia, Queensland, the Australian Capital Territory, and Western Australia.

South Australia Police said they had been informed before the protests in Adelaide, and as a result the force was able to plan for and provide adequate resources.

'We do not provide information on any resources involved,' the SA Police spokesperson said.

Daily Mail Australia also asked ASIO for an estimate of how many work hours the spy organisation spent surveilling the protests.

Extinction Rebellion activists bared almost all on the streets of Melbourne for their sixth day of protesting after a week of disruptions that blocked traffic in Australia's major capital cities

Annoyance towards last week's climate change protest disruptions found voice from media personality Kerri-Anne Kennerley who last week launched a blistering rant saying they should be left super-glued to wherever they have stuck themselves.

'No emergency services should help them, nobody should do anything, and you just put little witches hats around them, or use them as a speed bump,' she said.

Federal Employment Minister Michaelia Cash threatened to suspend welfare payments to unemployed activists who are caught protesting instead of looking for jobs.

'Taxpayers should not be ­expected to subsidise the protests of others. Protesting is not, and never will be, an exemption from a welfare recipient's mutual obligation to look for a job,' Senator Cash told The Australian newspaper.