A group of protesters disrupted the Welcome to Country at Melbourne’s Anzac Day Dawn Service by booing throughout the address.
The disruption began just before the official start of the service, as Bunurong elder Uncle Mark Brown began delivering the Welcome to Country.
However, during his speech, a group of around six to ten people near the front of the crowd, close to the Shrine, began shouting and booing loudly.
Their voices were picked up by microphones and loudspeakers, making the disturbance clearly audible to the rest of the crowd.
‘The tone took a turn when the service began and that was during the Welcome to Country,’ 3AW reporter Madelaine Burke said.
‘The boos lasted the entire five minutes of the Welcome to Country.’
Victoria Premier Jacinta Allan unleashed about the booing.
‘[It] runs counter to why we gather at the Shrine at dawn [with] hundreds of thousands people across the country simultaneously,’ she said on ABC radio shortly afterwards.
Bunurong Uncle Mark Brown elder delivers the Welcome to country during the Anzac Day dawn service at Shrine Of Remembrance in Melbourne that was booed
‘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.’
Allan said education about Gallipoli, the ANZAC tradition, and wartime history is essential in countering displays of disrespect.
‘As we were taking our places this morning… [the MC Justin Smith] was reading out letters that young men had written to their mums from war zones,’ Allan said.
‘That is what is being dishonoured. That is why we cannot give up educating, helping people understand why not only is that behaviour disrespectful, it doesn’t change anything. It doesn’t change the past.’
This is a breaking story, more to come.
