A man is expected to be charged for offensive behaviour after a group including an alleged neo-Nazi booed and heckled a welcome to country at Melbourne’s main Anzac Day dawn ceremony.
A small group of people booed and yelled throughout the welcome delivered by Bunurong elder Uncle Mark Brown at the 5:30am service at the city’s Shrine of Remembrance.
“This morning, I’m here to welcome everyone to my father’s country,” Brown said, speaking over the shouts.
“We all gather in the spirit of respect and unity and this welcome is an opportunity … to honour and respect the deep cultural heritage of the Bunurong people of the Kulin nations.”
“What about the Anzacs?” one man shouted, while others yelled: “It’s our country … We don’t have to be welcomed.”
Others 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 deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, attended the service and said the booing had been “deplorable”.
“I was here this morning and witnessed it, and I absolutely feel that sense of outrage,” he said.
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, said the booing was a disgrace and said neo-Nazism was a “stain on our national fabric”. He said the welcome to country “should be respected”.
“Indigenous Australians played a very significant part, and still do today, in the ranks of the Australian defence force,” he said.
Victoria police said they interviewed a 26-year-old Kensington man for offensive behaviour and directed him to leave the Shrine of Remembrance. They intend to proceed with a summons and expect the man will be charged, a spokesperson said.
Victoria police declined to confirm reports of the man’s identity.
The booing was allegedly led by a “known neo-Nazi”, the veterans’ affairs minister, Matt Keogh, said.
“When we come together to commemorate on Anzac Day, we’re commemorating some of those soldiers who fell in a war that was fought against that sort of hateful ideology,” Keogh told ABC radio.
RSL Victoria’s president, Robert Webster also condemned the hecklers.
“The actions of that very small minority were completely disrespectful to veterans and the spirit of Anzac Day [but] the applause of everybody else attending drowned it out and showed the respect befitting of the occasion,” he said.
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The Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, told ABC radio the behaviour was “beyond disappointing”, while Barnaby Joyce, the shadow veterans’ affairs minister, said it marred Australia’s “most sacred ceremony”.
“Any person who desecrates that in any way, shape or form, is a complete and utter disgrace,” he said.
RSL Victoria said Friday morning’s Melbourne service was attended by more than 50,000 people, up from the 40,000-strong crowd in 2024.
At Sydney’s 4:30am service at the cenotaph in Martin Place, thousands of veterans and members of the public stood in silence for the service.
The rain paused as the crowd marked 110 years since Australian and New Zealand defence forces landed at Gallipoli.
Attendees heard from representatives of the ADF and RSL. The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, gave the traditional reading of Sydney Elliott Napier’s poem Salute and the army band played Abide With Me, God Save the King and the national anthems of New Zealand and Australia.
Showers pummelled Queensland’s Gold Coast and forced the cancellation of a community march led by Southport’s RSL sub-branch, according to secretary Michael Burt.
“The weather was so heavy after the dawn service, it was too wet to hold it safely,” he said.
Additional reporting by Sarah Basford-Canales and Krishani Dhanji
