*AFP to investigate Canberra protest

• Tent embassy protest 'a set-up'
• Abbott tent comments 'ill-considered'
• Carr blogs on tent embassy protest 'clown'
• PM's bodyguard 'star in the making'
• Abbott standing by comments
• In pictures: PM rushed to safety

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has called on Prime Minister Julia Gillard to give precise details about the circumstances of the resignation of one of her staff.

Demanding answers over revelations that one of the Prime Minister's media advisers leaked details of the Opposition leader's whereabouts near the Aboriginal Tent Embassy on Australia Day, Mr Abbott said Ms Gillard needed to face the cameras.

"What did he say precisely? To whom did he say it precisely? Why did he say it precisely? And what instructions was he under precisely?" Mr Abbott told Sky News on Saturday.

"I mean this is too important for the PM and her office to just spin it away.

"I'm sure there are decent people in the prime minister's office, but it looks like a pretty grubby business."

Ms Gillard and Mr Abbott had to be rushed through the crowd after over 200 protesters surrounded a restaurant in Canberra where a government function was being held.

One of Ms Gillard's staffers, named Tony Hodges, has resigned for telling someone - who the Government will not identify - where Mr Abbott was.

Ms Gillard's office on Friday evening confirmed the resignation.

According to news agencies, the Opposition also wants to know whether anyone else sanctioned the release of the information and has called on the Prime Minister to refer the matter to the Australian Federal Police (AFP).

Opposition frontbencher George Brandis told Saturday AM that the police must look into what happened.

"The Australian Federal Police should investigate to see whether or not that person, in saying whatever they had to say to the people at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, committed a crime in inciting the violence that subsequently happened," he said.

The development followed claims made on Macquarie Radio by broadcaster Ray Hadley that someone from her office had contacted the tent embassy in Canberra to tell protesters the location of Mr Abbott.

However, a spokesperson said that accusation was false and that the person did not directly contact tent embassy organisers.

"A member of the Prime Minister's media unit did call another individual yesterday and disclosed the presence of the Opposition Leader at the Lobby restaurant," the spokesperson said in a statement.

"This information was subsequently passed onto a member of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy.

"During that discussion, the staff member did not in any way suggest or encourage violence or demonstration.

"Nevertheless, given the circumstances of yesterday's function at the Lobby Restaurant, this action was an error of judgement."

Tony Hodges has admitted making a phone call alerting a person to the Opposition Leader's location.

Mr Hadley earlier on Friday told listeners he had information a member of Ms Gillard's staff contacted tent embassy representative Barbara Shaw to tell her what Mr Abbott said earlier on Thursday about the site.

He also said he had the name of the staff member and would be happy to pass it on to the prime minister in private.

Comments made on Thursday by Mr Abbott sparked a protest by Aboriginal activists who bailed up him and Ms Gillard in a restaurant near the tent embassy, which was set up outside Old Parliament House 40 years ago.

The protesters believed Mr Abbott had suggested it was time to move on from the embassy.

In extraordinary scenes, the coalition leader and Ms Gillard were forced to run a gauntlet of protesters after police and security feared for their safety and advised them to leave the venue.

This afternoon, protesters set fire to an Australian flag at the entrance of Parliament House as they called for Aboriginal sovereignty over Australia.

Around 200 protesters on Friday marched with a police escort from the Aboriginal Tent Embassy outside the Old Parliament House in Canberra to the building on Capital Hill.

They sat on the forecourt outside the main doors and clapped and chanted before setting the flag on fire.

Police formed two lines to stop them from entering the building.

Aboriginal activist Wayne Coco Wharton organised the march, which was not an official event of the tent embassy, a spokesman told reporters.

Mr Wharton held a megaphone where he led the crowd through a chant "always was, always will be Aboriginal land."

Another activist, Lionel Fogarty, took the megaphone as the Australian Flag was set alight.

He led the protesters in chanting: "Who owns the land - we do. Who stole the land - they did. What do we want - sovereignty."

They called for black sovereignty and black justice.

Mr Fogarty stood on the last embers of the fire to put it out before protesters left Parliament House.

Four protesters, including an elderly woman in a wheelchair, made it inside the doors before being surrounded by security guards.

They left voluntarily and rejoined the crowd outside.

The march comes after a protest on Thursday by tent embassy supporters that sparked a security scare at a Canberra restaurant, resulting in Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott being rushed away by security personnel.

Australian Federal Police are now investigating the protest and have not ruled out charges being laid.

About 200 protesters trapped Ms Gillard and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott in a restaurant yesterday afternoon before police arrived to clear a passage for the pair amid chaotic scenes.

The protesters, from the nearby Aboriginal tent embassy, banged on the three glass walls of The Lobby restaurant chanting "shame" and "racist".

Ms Gillard lost her shoe as she slipped during the mayhem, with a security official catching her.

About 50 police, including the riot squad, were called to The Lobby shortly after 2.30pm (AEDT).

The two leaders, protected by police and security officers, escaped out a side door after almost 20 minutes.

Ms Gillard stumbled and lost a navy-blue suede wedge shoe while running to her car.

The protesters later collected the shoe and proclaimed it as a trophy.

On the tent embassy's Facebook page there is a picture of Ms Gillard losing her shoe with the caption:

"What is losing a shoe compared to losing an entire continent?"

On a day that many Aboriginal people consider "invasion day", they had taken offence at comments by Mr Abbott that the embassy may have reached its used-by date.

But the Opposition Leader denies he ever said the tent embassy should be torn down.

He has also been backed by senior indigenous leaders who have slammed protesters for reacting violently to 'pretty timid' remarks.

Activists continue to blame Mr Abbott for inciting their protest after he suggested they 'move on' from issues that gave birth to the Aboriginal tent embassy outside Parliament House this day 40 years ago.

Meanwhile, Australians have been told to "get over" the violent scenes of the protest involving Prime Minister Julia Gillard and start focusing on the needs of the Aboriginal community.

Dozens of indigenous community representatives met in Canberra today to celebrate the 40th year of the tent embassy outside Old Parliament House and later insisted the incident was a political stunt.

"The Australian Federal Police came at us with force and we did not retaliate with force," protest spokeswoman Selina Daveys-Newry told reporters.

"We see straight through that little puppet play.

"We recognise it for the political stunt that it was, so you mob just need to move on."

Protest spokeswoman Barbara Shaw admitted she passed on information to the crowd about Mr Abbott's whereabouts but would not say directly whether the person who gave it to her worked for Ms Gillard.

"Whoever told me was a member of the public," she said.

"There were a lot of people here yesterday.

"I just heard Tony Abbott's name."

Senior indigenous leaders such as social justice commissioner Mick Gooda and Warren Mundine are dismayed at what happened on Thursday but a tent embassy organiser called them "handpicked puppets" who did not represent grassroots Aboriginal people.

Michael Anderson, the last surviving member of the original four that established the tent embassy in 1972, denied the ugly protest had set back the indigenous movement.

"You fellas can ... dwell on that and stay there, but right now we're passed that," he said.

"We're over it, so get over it and move on."

Community members met for several hours on Friday before agreeing to declare sovereignty over Australia - something they said had never been given up by the Aboriginal people.

"Either you respect us as a sovereign people or piss off out of our country," indigenous activist Paul Coe said.

Mr Anderson said legal action was likely to be part of the process but that a mandate would first be sought from all the various clan groups.

Protesters said they'd give back the navy wedge-heeled shoe Ms Gillard lost but said they would also ask her to "give us back our country".

On Thursday morning Mr Abbott had said he understood why the tent embassy was set up "all those years ago".

"I think a lot has changed for the better since then," he told reporters in Sydney.

"I think the indigenous people of Australia can be very proud of the respect in which they are held by every Australian.

"I think a lot has changed since then, and I think it probably is time to move on from that."

Embassy founder Michael Anderson said the opposition leader's comments were disrespectful.

"Abbott said the Aboriginal embassy had to go. We heard it on a radio broadcast," he told AAP.

"We thought no way, so we circled around the building."

He said the protesters wanted the leaders to clarify their position and to know whether Mr Abbott was serious about removing the embassy.