Parliamentarians sat quietly as the group of roughly 30 people started yelling “this is a state of emergency” from the public gallery.
After several minutes, Speaker Tony Smith suspended proceedings.
Security officers struggled to contain or remove them, with the protesters later claiming seven of them had superglued their hands to the rails.
The chaos spilled out into the public visiting area of Parliament House, with the group linking arms and chanting “close the camps” and “blood on your hands”.
“You are playing politics with people’s lives,” the group chanted.
Security eventually broke up the non-violent display and escorted the individuals one-by-one into the basement of the building.
“The dignity of the House would have been severely compromised had we continued,” Speaker Smith said to all members before he resumed proceedings.
“This is obviously a very serious matter, the intrusion of the parliament and the shutting down of Question Time,” Leader of the House Christopher Pyne said.
“On behalf of the government I would like to apologise to the rest of the members of the public who came to watch Canberra today, watch the parliament.”
Mr Pyne called for a “thorough investigation” of what went on and whether the protesters were signed-in by an MP.
“I want to place on record our gratitude to our security staff and the people who handled those protesters,” Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said.
“We will never give in to those wish to shut this parliament down, no matter what the protest, no matter who tries it or what the issue they think it is.”
Bill Shorten labelled the protest the “exact opposite of democracy”.
A group called Whistleblowers, Activists and Citizens has claimed credit for the disruption, posting a pre-organised video to its Facebook page.
“I am one of over 40 people who interrupted parliament today and there’s a very good reason for that. The Australian Government is keeping people in concentration camps on Manus Island and Nauru,” a spokeswoman said in the video.
The page was quick to post pictures of the carefully planned event with the hashtag #CloseTheCamps.
After being escorted out of the building into the car park below Parliament House the group was met by Greens leader Richard Di Natale who thanked them for their work.
“They’ve expressed their democratic right to come here into the nation’s parliament and take a stand, and for that we salute them,” Senator Di Natale said.
-With AAP
