Photo of Nationals MP George Christensen with a gun reported to police

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Photo of Nationals MP George Christensen with a gun reported to police

By Neelima Choahan

Controversial Queensland MP George Christensen has been reported to police after posing with a handgun on social media.

On Saturday, Mr Christensen posted a photo of himself aiming a gun on Facebook along with a post saying, "You gotta ask yourself, do you feel lucky, greenie punks?"

After a flood of critical comments, he amended the words accompanying the picture to say: "You gotta ask yourself, do you have a sense of humour, greenie punks? Obviously not." He eventually deleted his post.

Mr  Christensen's Facebook post.

Mr Christensen's Facebook post.Credit: Facebook

The post comes just days after 17 people were killed at a shooting in a high school in the US.

The post was reported to police by Stop Adani campaigner Ben Pennings, who said he had been subjected to a lot of abuse online.

"[The post] was aimed at environmentalists in general, " Mr Pennings said.

"In the last six weeks  ... there has been a very large spike in online hate, online abuse. As a public person in the Stop Adani movement, I have got over a hundred people talk about my death online."

Mr Pennings, who has four children aged seven to 18 living at home, said people had said "really ugly things" about him online.

"There's people who have mentioned where I live, what car I drive, even did GPS searches on my house," he said.

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"That's a concern, and for my family's safety I have spoken to the police."

In response to questions about the post on Sunday, Mr Christensen texted: "Haven't you got real news to report about at Fairfax?"

In the past, the Nationals MP has called for the burqa to be banned in public, the death penalty to be reintroduced for terrorists who kill Australian citizens and for ice traffickers to be caned.

Queensland Police said on Twitter it was aware of the photograph, as well as the circumstances behind it.

"Preliminary enquiries would indicate that no offence has been committed," police said.

Mr Pennings said Mr Christensen was an "appalling example" to his constituents and "threats of physical violence to peaceful protesters were particularly unacceptable".

"You have got a federal MP who is meant to represent all his constituents fanning the flames of abuse and violence targeted at peaceful protesters," Mr Pennings said.

"He should be kicked off Facebook for things like this.

"He is a representative of a whole federal electorate, some of whom like [the Adani coal mine] and some of whom don't, some who are environmentalists and some are not."

Mr Pennings, who is a Greens member and ran for Brisbane's lord mayor in 2016 on a Greens ticket, said he added Mr Christensen's post to a complaint he filed on Thursday with Queensland Police after the online death threats. 

"I've added George Christensen to the list and will report him to the federal police also. We shouldn't allow bullies to be federal MPs," he said.

Mr Pennings said the Queensland MP's behaviour was unAustralian.

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young took to Twitter following Mr Christensen's post to suggest the member for Dawson should be sacked.

"A member of Parliament inciting violence against a group of voters should be a sackable offence," Senator Hanson-Young wrote.

"If the leader of the Nationals had any class he'd sack him."

Leader of the Australian Greens and Victorian senator Richard Di Natale also took to Twitter and said he had spoken to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull about the matter.

With AAP

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