Crossbench Senator David Leyonhjelm says telling citizen theatre performers to “f**k off” has been ticked off his bucket list after a run-in with protesters outside a Senate inquiry into wind farms.

The Liberal Democrat clashed with performers from a satirical group called the Flat Earth Institute outside the Melbourne hearing this week.

He told the group – who was dressed in medieval clothing and claimed parliamentarians’ attitudes on renewables were backwards – to “f**k off”.

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Video warning: contains explicit language 

“I am much relieved that telling citizen theatre performers to f**k off is no longer on my bucket list,” Mr Leyonhjelm told the Guardian.

The two street performers, La Trobe University academic Liz Conor and Phil Evans from Friends of the Earth, appeared amused in the video clip at the senator’s response.

“We proudly endorseth Senator Leyonhjelm’s inquisition into wind energy. It buildeth on our legacy of denying enlightenment and excelling at witch-hunts,” Professor Greenhausen, Conor’s Flat Earth Institute pseudonym, said in a written statement to the Guardian.

“We presumeth that ‘f**k off’ is the customary greeting in the 21st century.”

In 2014, Mr Leyonhjelm moved a motion in the Senate to establish a committee to inquire into the regulation and governance of wind farms.

He wrote an opinion piece in The Australian newspaper on Wednesday where he wrote that the inquiry had found that wind turbines emitted infrasound and low frequency noise, and that inappropriate levels of infrasound, regardless of the source, caused adverse health impacts.

“What disturbs me about this is that, as the inquiry has heard, wind farms are not required to limit or even monitor their infrasound emissions,” he wrote.

“And unless something changes, it is absolutely certain that tens of thousands of people who live within a few kilometres of these new turbines will become sick.”