Senior Nationals minister David Littleproud has backed calling out protesters who disrupt traffic after a colleague floated a crackdown on disruptive climate change activists.
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Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton suggested protesters who disrupted traffic during a series of demonstrations in Brisbane should have welfare cut and be publicly shamed.
Mr Littleproud said the government wouldn't have to threaten harsher penalties if state governments came down heavily on people lacking respect.
"We wouldn't have to do the heavy lifting if the states got in there and imposed higher penalties for these activists so that the magistrates had nowhere to go but to slip into them," he told the ABC's Insiders on Sunday.
"Everyone wants a cause these days. They become angry and they impose their will on the Australian people.
"What this should be is about respect. When they don't, we've got to call them out."
The former agriculture minister said the Morrison government had acted on people inciting farm invasions.
"They were trespassing on their property, and the states weren't doing anything," Mr Littleproud said.
"Everyone's got to be angry these days but for Christ's sakes, just respect your fellow Australian."
Australian Associated Press
