Scott Morrison and other conservatives flock to hear anti-political correctness culture warrior Jordan Peterson

As the prime minister and opposition leader attended a Parliament House barbecue for prostate cancer awareness, a red meat advocate of a different kind was addressing a packed room of conservative MPs just metres away.

The Canadian psychologist and internet personality Jordan Peterson, fresh off being unbanned from Twitter, drew a lunchtime crowd of Liberal, National and One Nation politicians for an hour-long lecture touching on energy, climate and opportunities for the political centre-right.

“He wanted to take the opportunity to speak with political leaders. He has been a controversial figure, I don’t exactly know why sometimes,” said the Nationals senator Matt Canavan, who hosted Peterson in parliament on Thursday.

Peterson, formerly a university professor and clinical psychologist, came to prominence with YouTube videos about self-improvement. He gradually morphed into an anti-political correctness culture warrior, railing against preferred gender pronouns for transgender people as impingements on free speech and campaigning against identity politics.

Peterson says there is a masculinity crisis among young men. The actor Olivia Wilde, who said she based a character in a recent movie on him, claimed he was a “pseudo-intellectual hero to the ‘incel’ community”.

Peterson was banned from Twitter after referring to the actor Elliot Page, who is transgender, by his deadname and saying Page “just had her breasts removed by a criminal physician”. He later said he would “rather die” than delete the tweet, in a video that was widely mocked online.

“Up yours, woke moralists. We’ll see who cancels who,” Peterson said in the video.

In 2018, Peterson declared he only ate “beef and salt and water. That’s it, and I never cheat.”

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But on Thursday it was Parliament House, not various social media channels, hosting Peterson’s views. The event, a brief stopover on Peterson’s current speaking tour of Australia, was not publicly advertised, but circulated to a smaller pool of rightwing politicians and staff.

“In Canberra today to spread my hateful message of faith, maturity and personal responsibility among Australian politicos,” Peterson tweeted on Thursday morning.

In an invitation to the event, seen by Guardian Australia, Canavan’s office said there was “huge interest” in the event. It also noted that despite it being scheduled for lunchtime, there would be no lunch provided.

Held in Parliament House’s main committee room, numerous high-profile politicians including the former prime minister Scott Morrison, senators Bridget McKenzie and Jacinta Price and Sky News host Rita Panahi were among the audience.

Morrison and Peterson posed for a photo inside a Parliament House office.

Guardian Australia was not allowed in the room, but those inside tell us Peterson spoke for an hour about the energy crisis and climate policy hurting the poor, and how this was a major opportunity for centre-right politicians to fight for the working class.

Canavan called it a “a huge privilege to host Jordan Peterson today”.

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“He encouraged political leaders to fight for a coherent policy agenda of cheap energy, local environmental protection, holding up the nuclear family as the ideal and encouraging a culture of individual responsibility,” the senator wrote on Facebook.

“In a world dominated by the siren song of instant gratification, Jordan’s message of the need for discipline and sacrifice, to achieve meaning and happiness, has resonated with millions.”

It is understood Peterson’s representatives approached Canavan earlier this week, seeking an opportunity to address MPs in Parliament House.

Speaking on the ABC, Canavan claimed Peterson had been “cancelled more than any other man on the planet”.

“He gives very good arguments, and his opponent can’t argue with them, they struggle, so they try to cancel him,” he claimed.

“That to me is extremely unfortunate. In our society, we should be encouraging different views … you may not agree with them but he is worth listening to.”

The One Nation senator Pauline Hanson, who had a front-row seat to Peterson’s talk, praised him for speaking about “the left’s infestation of the west’s education systems”.

“Much of what you said I have been arguing in favour of for decades,” she tweeted.

Andrew Hastie, the Liberal MP for Canning, wrote on Instagram he enjoyed listening to Peterson’s presentation.

“Democracy is about the contest of ideas. You don’t have to agree with everything that people say but you have to be prepared to listen,” he wrote in a caption.

The photo showed Hastie and Morrison seated in the front row of the event, looking up at Peterson as he addressed the audience, standing just inches from the pair.