About 50 protestors threw Parliament House into disarray on Wednesday, forcing question time to shut down for more than 20 minutes as security guards struggled to remove them.

The protest against the government’s treatment of asylum seekers began in the public gallery in the House of Representatives, with activists standing up and chanting “Where is your moral compass …we will not stop until you close all the detention centres!”

Some protestors superglued their hands onto the chairs of the public gallery making it more difficult for security guards to remove them from the chamber.

On Thursday the protestors returned to Parliament House abseiling their way down the front of the building and unfurling a ‘Close the camps’ banner. Fellow protestors stood in the Parliament House water feature after adding food dye to turn the water red.