A magistrate has shut down the alleged "ringleader" of the anti-government protest group accused of setting fire to Old Parliament House, refusing to engage with the man's questions about "the origin of power".
Magistrate James Lawton committed Bruce Shillingsworth jnr, 30, to the ACT Supreme Court for trial on Tuesday.
He did so after Aboriginal Legal Service lawyer Daniel Turner told the ACT Magistrates Court the Bourke man maintained pleas of not guilty to five charges, the most serious of which are aiding and abetting both arson and the damaging of Commonwealth property.
Shillingsworth, who has typically declined to approach the bar table during previous court appearances, sat there wearing a beanie and with a kangaroo skin laid across his lap on Tuesday.
At the end of his matter, the 30-year-old sought to engage with Mr Lawton.
He said he had "a concern about the origin of the power of both parties", but the magistrate was not interested in discussing the issue.
"That man is the man who gives legal advice, not me," Mr Lawton said, cutting him off and pointing at Mr Turner.
Shillingsworth has been on bail since January, when the Magistrates Court heard police suspected him of being "some kind of ringleader" among the group of protesters that had been camping near the Aboriginal Tent Embassy.
That group, which had ties to sovereign citizen and anti-vaccination causes, was attempting at the time to boot officials out of public buildings.
Police claim its members tried to serve "eviction papers" at Old Parliament House last December, a few days before the historic building sustained millions of dollars worth of damage in a blaze.
Investigators allege Shillingsworth urged his fellow protesters before the fire to break down "the doors of injustice, doors of genocide, doors that they take our children and hide 'em behind", then told them they had to "make a stand".
"Maybe every single one of us gotta get locked up. It's nothing new. Our brothers and sisters are going to jail every day for nothing," he allegedly said.
"We may as well go to jail for something, and that's fighting for our rights, fighting for our freedom."
Soon after Shillingsworth is said to have given that speech on December 30, he allegedly painted over the glass on the Old Parliament House doors.
He is accused of then co-ordinating other protesters and clearing a path for Nicholas Malcolm Reed, 30, to carry hot coals from a nearby ceremonial fire to the doors of Old Parliament House on an Aboriginal parrying shield.
As the doors subsequently burned, Shillingsworth allegedly linked arms with more than 20 other protesters and screamed at them to "hold" in order to stop police reaching and extinguishing the fire.
He allegedly struck one police officer in the chest and grabbed another by the left arm.
Shillingsworth's case is due to go before the Supreme Court registrar on August 4, when the process of setting dates for his trial on the two aiding and abetting charges is set to begin.
He is also accused of assaulting a frontline community service provider, resisting a public official and defacing public property, which Mr Lawton transferred to the superior court as related charges.
Reed was previously committed to the Supreme Court to face a trial of his own on charges that include arson, having pleaded not guilty.
Several others charged in connection with the fire also remain before the courts.
