Booing has marred Anzac Day commemorations in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, while on the Gold Coast, the Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith attended the dawn service at Currumbin beach.
One man was arrested at the Sydney dawn service at Martin Place, where there was a small but noisy interjection of booing during the Indigenous acknowledgment of country.
After the disturbance was quietened, a chorus of applause and cheering rang out for an extended period to show support for Uncle Ray Minniecon.
Minniecon told the ABC that those interjecting needed to understand “this always was and always will be Aboriginal land”.
“We have experienced this type of racism for over 230-odd years,” he said. “It really is a whitefella problem, not a blackfella problem.”
A 24-year-old man was arrested for “an alleged act of nuisance”, New South Wales police subsequently confirmed. The police said “other people were moved on from the service”.
RSL NSW’s acting president, Vincent Williams, said the booing was “the most appalling act I’ve ever seen at a dawn service”.
Minniecon’s “family have contributed enormously to our nation from the first world war to the current day,” Williams told the ABC.
“I’m pretty convinced that none of that bunch of louts who were booing has ever done anything constructive for our nation.”
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, said: “Whilst I’ve never before heard booing like that at a dawn service, I’ve also never heard a crowd spontaneously applaud as they did for Uncle Ray Minniecon.”
“That act made it clear what the views of the vast majority attending were,” Minns said in a statement.
A similar booing disruption was drowned out in Melbourne, where Bunurong and Gunditjmara man Uncle Mark Brown delivered his welcome to country.
The RSL Victoria president, Mark Schroffel, said the welcome to country recognised First Nations’ “traditions and service”.
“Those that did the wrong thing [by booing] showed they are weak-minded individuals who do not belong at this service,” he said. “They were overwhelmed by the vast majority of the attendees who applauded and supported proceedings.”
The Victorian premier described the interruption as “bastardry”.
“To break the stillness of dawn service is not just ugly behaviour towards our Aboriginal servicemen and women who defended this country – it disrespects everyone who fought and died for our freedoms,” Jacinta Allan said in a statement.
“Politicising this sacred day is bastardy. I condemn it and so should every leader.”
Fight for Australia, the group formerly known as March for Australia, which has staged major anti-immigration rallies, had encouraged supporters to contact local RSL branches and ask that welcomes to country not be included in Anzac Day ceremonies.
On Friday, the group wrote online, “Will you be booing the welcome to country this year?” alongside a video of Melbourne’s 2025 Anzac Day ceremony, where Brown was booed by members of the National Socialist Network.
The acting chief of army, Maj Gen Richard Vagg, said on Saturday that the heckling was “disgraceful behaviour”.
The deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, said the booing was disgraceful and “deeply disappointing”.
“Acknowledgments of country are just an act of respect – and what characterises today is, it is a day of respect,” Marles told ABC TV.
The ABC reported Whadjuk and Noongar elder Di Ryder’s welcome was heckled in Perth.
The chief executive of RSL WA, Stephen Barton, subsequently thanked Ryder, an army veteran, and said the booing “was one of the most disgraceful things I have ever heard”, the national broadcaster reported.
There was also booing at Anzac services last year.
Saturday marked the 111th anniversary of Australian and New Zealand forces landing on the Turkish coast at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915.
More than 8,000 Australian soldiers died during the unsuccessful campaign, which failed to wrest control of the Dardanelles.
Ben Roberts-Smith attends Gold Coast dawn service
Roberts-Smith, one of Australia’s most decorated soldiers, was charged this month with five counts of the war crime of murder. Each charge carries a potential life sentence in prison.
He is accused of killing unarmed, handcuffed civilians during his service in the Australian SAS in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012.
Court documents allege the victims were in the custody of Australian soldiers and posed no risk to safety, in situations where there was no active engagement in conflict.
Roberts-Smith is alleged to have killed some civilians himself and ordered subordinates to execute others.
He has vehemently denied the charges, stating: “I categorically deny all of these allegations.”
Roberts-Smith on Saturday told reporters: “I never thought about not coming. I was always going to be here.”
The former soldier said he was thinking of those who gave their lives for their country.
“Their sons are the ones that I’m thinking about today because that’s what this is all about, and we should never forget their sacrifice because it is enduring,” he said.
Separately, a group whose founder describes himself as a “white nationalist” is set to hold a rally in support of Roberts-Smith in Melbourne on Sunday. Neither Roberts-Smith nor his family were in any way involved in the rally, a spokesperson said.
The rally, which calls for the charges against Roberts-Smith to be dropped, was planned by the National Workers Alliance, which describes itself on promotional material as an “Australian nationalist organisation for the preservation of European culture and identity”.
Sunday’s rally was also being promoted by Fight for Australia.
– Additional reporting by Josh Butler and Australian Associated Press
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