Hecklers and booers at Anzac Day welcome to country ‘must face the full force of the law’, PM says
Anthony Albanese says disruption of ceremonies in Melbourne and Perth was ‘act of low cowardice on a day when we honour courage and sacrifice’
Anthony Albanese has condemned the booing and heckling of welcome to country ceremonies in Melbourne and Perth during Anzac dawn services as “a disgrace” and called for those responsible to “face the full force of the law”.
A small group of people booed and yelled throughout the welcome delivered by Bunurong elder Uncle Mark Brown in Melbourne. An acknowledgment in Perth was also interrupted by a person shouting obscenities.
The prime minister said there was “no place in Australia for what has occurred”.
“What occurred at Melbourne’s shrine of remembrance and Kings Park in Perth was a disgrace,” Albanese said. “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 when we honour courage and sacrifice. Anzac Day is a day where we look at those who looked for peace, including those who continue to serve our nation today.”
Peter Dutton also condemned the interruptions and said extremist ideology was a “stain on our national fabric”.
The booing in Melbourne was allegedly led by a “known neo-Nazi”, the veterans’ affairs minister, Matt Keogh, said. Victoria police declined to confirm reports of the man’s identity.
“We have a proud Indigenous heritage in this country, and we should be proud to celebrate it as part of today,” the opposition leader said.
“We should always remember too that and remind ourselves, as we did at the [Sydney] Opera House last night, that Indigenous Australians played a very significant part [in Australia’s military conflicts] and still do today in the ranks of the Australian defence force.”
In Melbourne, Uncle Mark Brown continued to deliver the welcome to country as people heckled him, with their interruptions picked up by microphones and audible on broadcasts.
“What about the Anzacs?” one man shouted, while others yelled: “It’s our country … We don’t have to be welcomed.”
The deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, said he felt “a sense of outrage in the crowd” at the Melbourne dawn service.
Some in the crowd shouted “Always was, always will be” and clapped and cheered over the top of the hecklers, who again booed and shouted as Victoria’s governor, Margaret Gardner, delivered an acknowledgment of country.
The Western Australian premier, Roger Cook, said the heckling of the acknowledgment in Perth was “disgusting”, “totally inappropriate” and “totally disrespectful”.
“This is a solemn occasion,” Cook said. “It’s one where we should come together as a community and for someone to use it to make a political point and in that disrespectful way, is really quite unacceptable.”
While the interjections received bipartisan condemnation, some minor parties and conservative campaign groups have attempted to make welcome to country ceremonies an issue at this year’s election.
Hours after the service was interrupted, the homepage of news.com.au was surrounded by ads from Clive Palmer’s Trumpet of Patriots party, including a bold headline stating “sick of being welcomed to our country”. The Age also published a Trumpet of Patriots ad on the front page on Friday that said: “We don’t need to be welcomed to our own country.”
Coalition frontbencher Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s image features in paid social media ads launched by the conservative campaign group Advance, which also calls for an end to public funding for ceremonies and for their use to be scaled back.
One ad, run by Advance with an image of the senator, described the ceremonies as “wasteful and divisive” and claimed they ignored “the real issues”. The group has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on social media ads during the election campaign.
“It’s purposefully designed to make you feel like a stranger in your own country,” the ad said. “But these activist-led ceremonies must end.”
“Are you sick and tired of being welcomed to your own country? This is YOUR chance to change things.”
Price and Advance were contacted for comment and asked for their response to the booing of acknowledgments at Anzac Day services.
While Price has previously criticised welcome to country ceremonies, it is not clear whether she authorised Advance to use her image on the ad, which seeks to make them an election issue.