A Q&A panellist has shared the emotional moment a Melbourne protester broke down in tears telling him he was protesting because he hadn't seen his son in a year.
Hugh van Cuylenburg, founder of The Resilience Project, which teaches mental health techniques to schools and workplaces, recounted the sad chat on Thursday night's episode.
Melbourne had protests almost weekly for months over lockdown rules, widespread vaccine mandates and, most recently, the Andrews Government's pandemic law.
Protesters (pictured) have been camped out on the steps on Victoria's Parliament House for weeks as the government attempted to pass its controversial Pandemic Management Bill
Mr van Cuylenburg said when he travelled through Melbourne earlier this week and encountered the 'ridiculous' protests he at first felt 'really angry'.
He stopped to get a coffee and one of the protesters who looked 'exhausted' and was carrying 'not the nicest' sign sat close to him and they struck up a conversation.
'We chatted about how hard he'd been protesting. Then he said, "And I haven't seen my son in a year",' he recalled.
'He was really teary.
'It just made me realise that there's been a massive missed opportunity to unite us.'
Mr van Cuylenburg said he felt that leadership should have been coming from the very top of government.
Hugh van Cuylenburg (pictured), founder of The Resilience Project shared on Q&A how one of the protesters broke down in tears to him as he revealed he hadn't seen his son in a year
'What we needed was a really strong leader. I'm not pointing the finger at Scott Morrison... well, maybe I am,' he said.
'Just a charismatic, strong leader to really unite us.'
Comedian Arj Barker, also on the panel after being stuck in Victoria's lockdown, agreed that the government 'failed' the Australian people.
'The government screwed up,' he said referring to other panellists' comments about bungled hotel quarantine, vaccine rollout schemes, and overly hard lockdowns.
Comedian Arj Barker, 45, told the Q&A audience the government has 'screwed up'
'I believe we got through it because as a herd we were protecting the more susceptible members.
'We all chipped in to do the right thing.
'I know people are angry. And I know they're not all right-wing extremists.
'People are mad... there are people protesting, yelling, "Dictator Dan! Dictator Dan!" [but] I think that's a pretty disrespectful way to refer to Dan Andrews.'
An audience member asked why conservative commentators were not condemning protesters who displayed violent or 'neo-Nazi' behaviour.
