'Do better': why protesters are picketing Bendigo MP's office

Members of the Australian Conservation Foundation have paraded banners emblazoned with the words "End the crisis", "Put the climate first always", and "Move beyond coal" at the Williamson Street office since Monday, April 20.

Rally organiser Malcolm Robins hoped the protest meant the federal government would acknowledge "they need to do better".

"The labor government was elected on a climate action platform," he said. "And after a couple of years it is appearing to abandon that platform."

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had committed Labor to achieve net zero emissions for Australia by 2050.

Recent Labor party "cognitive dissonance" including the approval of a planned water trigger and failure to update the Environmental Protection Biodiversity Conservation Act went against that promise, Mr Robins said.

"The conclusion I draw is that they are giving into pressure from vested interests that do not want environmental laws to be tightened up," Mr Robins said.

"We have analysed it ... and they have been traded off against the environment."

Mr Robins also wanted the federal government to intervene with mining giant Whitehaven Coal's plans to expand operations.

"We are working to ensure the government doesn't put money in to it," he said.

Mr Robins said Ms Chester's office staff had acknowledged his group but he was yet to meet with the MP.

"I can not speak for what Lisa would actually say, but my feeling is that she is concerned about the environment, but she's not the environment minister," he said.

Ms Chesters said the federal government was "transitioning" out of coal into renewable energy.

"But we can't put the cart before the horse," she said.

"We have to make sure that we're building the renewable energy grid, that we're building those transmission lines to get more renewable energy into our system.

"It's got to be a just transition and that's what our government is working towards."

Ms Chesters said her Williamson Street office was no stranger to protests.

"We live in a country which encourages people to demonstrate [when] they're not happy about something," she said.

The last day of the protests would be May 10, 2024.