National leaders condemn booing at Anzac Day dawn service

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has denounced the cowardly behaviour of hecklers who interrupted Welcome to Country acknowledgements at Anzac Day dawn services in Melbourne and Perth today.

Victorian dignitaries, spectators and veterans were listening to Indigenous elder Uncle Mark Brown at the Shrine of Remembrance when a small number of people started booing.

In WA, a heckler disrupted the acknowledgement of the traditional owners of the land at the Kings Park dawn service, in an act the state’s premier Roger Cook labelled as “disgusting”.

“What occurred at Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance and Kings Park in Perth was a disgrace,” the prime minister told media this afternoon.

“There is no place in Australia for what occurred.

“The disruption of Anzac Day is beyond contempt and the people responsible must face the full force of the law.

“This was an act of low cowardice on a day that we honour courage and sacrifice.”

Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles, who was among those at the Melbourne service, also condemned the “terrible” booing by agitators at the service.

Marles was among the dignitaries, spectators and veterans early today listening to Indigenous elder Uncle Mark Brown giving the Welcome to Country acknowledgement at the Shrine of Remembrance when shouting by a group of people began.

Marles told Today this morning he felt a “sense of outrage” over their actions but added it shouldn’t detract from the importance of Anzac Day.

“Look, what we saw was obviously terrible. And it is deplorable.

“But in a sense, I don’t want to give that any more air time than it deserves, because this is a day to acknowledge those who have worn our nation’s uniform.”

Marles stressed only a small number of people among the many attending started booing.

“I absolutely feel that sense of outrage. And I know that people in the crowd did today as well,” he said.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton also slammed the protesters’ actions.

“Our Diggers fought against the Nazis and (that) this movement of neo-Nazis has any presence in our country at all is just an outrage and a disgrace,” he told Today.

He praised the swift intervention by police and suggested anyone who followed Nazi ideology in Australia must be mentally unstable.

“And you read the history of the Nazi regime and Hitler’s evil and those around him, and that it could be glorified by Australians here shows that these people are mentally unwell, and it should be condemned.”

Booing broke out again when the Governor of Victoria, Margaret Gardner, gave a Welcome to Country address.

The agitators were eventually escorted out by event officials and police.

They included Jacob Hersant, the first Victorian to be convicted of performing an illegal Nazi salute, who spoke with 9News before he was escorted away by police.

“I can express my point of view to the public if I wish,” he said.

Police said in a statement they were aware of a small group of people disrupting the service and had interviewed a man over the incident.

“Police identified a 26-year-old man from Kensington in relation to the behaviour,” Victoria Police said in a statement.

“He has subsequently been interviewed for offensive behaviour and police will proceed via summons.

“The male has been directed to leave the Shrine of Remembrance.”

The booing and protests were condemned by Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan.

“It’s beyond disappointing,” she told the ABC.

She said the protesters’ actions “runs counter to why we gather at the Shrine at dawn (with) hundreds of thousands people across the country simultaneously”.

“They gather to never forget what war is like and why it is so important so we can gather peacefully today because of that sacrifice.”