Government backbencher Tim Wilson has defended his decision to join pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong and said environmental protests in Australia have a right to operate “so long as they stick within the law”.

Wilson joined protesters in Hong Kong last week but was accused of hypocrisy because of previous comments disparaging protests in Australia.

He told the ABC’s Q&A program on Monday that he joined the Hong Kong protests to show China that “Australia is watching”, saying that global interest was a key safeguard for those who protest authoritarian regimes.

“They have a right to protest and that’s very consistent with things I believe in,” he said.

But he drew a distinction when asked if he would extend that support to the Extinction Rebellion protests that took place across Australia last week, saying the wilful disruption caused by climate protesters was “frustrating people being able to live their lives”.

He cited a question from Thornbury man Matthew Zammit, who has several disabilities and told the panel he was “heavily disrupted” and made to walk with chronic pain due to public transport disruptions caused by Extinction Rebellion in Melbourne.

“I think we all want to operate in a country where people have a right to be able to protest so long as they stick within the law,” Wilson said.

Is there a balance that needs to be struck between the rights of people with disabilities and the right to protest? #QandA pic.twitter.com/h9c9Yg1dYu — ABC Q&A (@QandA) October 14, 2019

He also said Peter Dutton’s comment that protesters should have their welfare cut off had been “misinterpreted”. Pushed by guest host Hamish McDonald, who said there was no nuance to Dutton’s comments, Wilson said: “If you want more detail on the nuance of his question you’ll have to ask [Dutton].”

Chinese journalist Vicky Xu, who was also on the panel along with the Australian Financial Review’s Jennifer Hewett and the executive director of the Ethics Centre, Simon Longstaff, said Australia was reluctant to criticise China because it was concerned about economic interests. Xu also said messages which were entrenched in the Chinese education system did not support long-term partnership with the west.

“China’s rise has to be at the expense of the west’s collapse,” she said. “If we want to become strong again, if we want to rise to superpower status again, it has to beat down the west.”

The panel was also asked about whether Australia’s responsibility to its citizens held in camps in Syria was heightened, or had been abandoned, since Turkish troops had moved in following the withdrawal of the United States.

Wilson said the decision to remove Australian citizens, who remain in Syria despite attempts by their families and human rights organisation to bring them home, was complicated and made more so by the Turkish invasion.

“We have to confront the practical reality of the situation we haven’t created,” he said.

Speaking from the audience, a Kurdish-Australian man said: “We feel betrayed. That is the word that we use.”

Labor MP Tim Watts said Australia had an obligation to bring its citizens, particularly about 40 Australian children or children who have a claim to citizenship, home.

“I don’t think anyone is trying to say it’s the [Australian] government’s fault that this situation has come about and these people are in this situation,” he said. “I think the argument here is: we do have an obligation to Australian citizens, children, who by no fault of their own find themselves in this situation?”