Australian politics and news live: Outrage as Anzac Day dawn services disrupted by protesters, hecklers

The Coalition says it will make “no cuts” to the Department of Veterans’ Affairs under its plan to slash 41,000 public servants from Canberra, as questions swirl about the policy a week out from the election.

Shadow veterans affairs minister Barnaby Joyce made the commitment on Anzac Day as he admitted mistakes had been made in the past, including a lack of staff in the department.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton on Thursday confirmed from Hobart all 41,000 public servants to be cut over the next five years would come from Canberra, where about 69,000 of the country’s bureaucrats are based.

Around half of the APS staff in Canberra work in frontline or national security roles, meaning the Coalition would need to cut some of these workers to carry out its plan.

Read Ellen Ransley’s full story here.

Videos have also emerged from the Melbourne Anzac Day dawn service of men confronting journalists about the Welcome to Country disruptions.

In two videos posted by independent news site The Noticer, which is known to be popular with far-right groups, men are filmed confronting a Nine News TV journalist near the Shrine of Remembrance.

“Why can they politicise it ... Make it about white guilt and aboriginals? This is about the Anzacs,” one man is heard saying.

“They want to humiliate us, over and over again. That’s what they do.”

Shortly after the man makes the remarks to the journalist, the surrounding crowd start booing him.

He responded by saying: “They’re cowards”.

“The reality is we voted no,” he continued in the interview.

“People are over the Welcome to Country. How many times do we have to feel guilt.”

“You’re racist,” one woman yelled at him.

Another man, wearing a suit adorned five military medals, echoed his statements in a separate video.

He told the same reporter that military colleagues hadn’t attended the dawn service because they didn’t want to hear the Welcome to Country.

“The reason why we’re here

“Whether this is the time or place for it, I don’t know. I believe people are entitled to their opinions.

“The Welcome to Country, is it the right time and place ... As a veteran, I don’t think it is. I have a lot of veteran mates who haven’t come today, soley because of the Welcome to Country.

“Our friends died for this country, for this soil - for them to be welcomed is a slap in the face. You need to see it from a different perspective.”

The journalist responded: “I’m not saying that there aren’t people that feel that way, what I’m saying to you is, to get up there and boo in the middle of what is a sacred ceremony is going to be seen as, by a lot of people, as disrespectful.”

The man then said: “That’s where we as Australians and you as the media need to tell the right story.”

Premier Roger Cook has slammed a heckler who disrupted a Welcome to Country at Perth’s Anzac day dawn service at Kings Park as “disgusting”.

Claire Sadler is reporting that the man could be heard yelling a racist remark as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Veterans and Services of WA president Di Ryder performed a Welcome to Country ceremony.

Others in the crowd told the man to “shut up” as Ms Ryder continued.

After the incident, Mr Cook decried the act as “totally inappropriate, totally disrespectful, disgusting”.

“This is a solemn occasion,” he said.

“It’s one day 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.”

Veterans Minister Paul Papalia said the heckler “demonstrated a complete lack of understanding of the importance of reflection”.

“I really don’t want to acknowledge that individual too much only to say that it’s disgraceful that someone would impose themselves on the solemnity of the occasion and inject themselves into the dawn service,” he said.

It followed a similar incident in Melbourne, when Bunurong elder Mark Brown was performing a Welcome to Country, when heckles and boos came from members of the crowd.

The interruption was soon drowned out by louder applause.

The incident was quickly condemned by RSL Victoria as well as the nation’s leaders.

One of the men who hurled abuse at Brown has been identified as a neo-nazi.

Victoria Police have confirmed a 26-year-old Kensington man was being investigated in connection with the incident.

After the ceremony, he was seen being escorted from the Shrine of Remembrance by police.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has condemned the neo-nazi heckling of the Welcome to Country for Victoria’s main dawn service at the Shrine of Remembrance.

“To see any instance, whatsoever, of neo-nazis in our country is just a disgrace,” he said after attending an Anzac Day service in Samford, Queensland.

“I commend the police for the work that they’re doing, particularly in New South Wales and Victoria, but across the country, to quash any presence of neo-nazis in our country.

They have no place at all, and they’re a stain on our national fabric, and they are not part of the Australian culture,” he said.

“Nothing should overshadow what it is to be here to commemorate and to celebrate the contribution over successive generations of those that have served in uniform,” added Mr Dutton.

The Coalition Leader specifically condemned the booing of the Welcome to Country, which he said was “an important part of official ceremonies, and it should be respected.”

“We have a proud Indigenous heritage in this country, and we should be proud to celebrate it as part of today,” he said.

“We should always remind ourselves, as we did at the [Sydney] opera house last night, that Indigenous Australians played a very significant part and still do today in the ranks of the Australian Defence Force.”

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has slammed “disrespectful” protestors at Friday morning’s Anzac day dawn service in Melbourne.

Ms Allan condemned the group that interrupted by screaming and shouting during Bunerong elder and senior cultural heritage officer Mark Brown’s welcome to country.

“(It) runs counter to why we gather at the Shrine at dawn (with) hundreds of thousands people across the country simultaneously,” Ms Allan said on the ABC.

“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.”

Loud heckling and booing was heard on speakers as the protestors stood near the microphones, prior to the dawn service ceremony.

Multiple men could be heard yelling.

“Give us our country back,” one screamed and “we don’t have to be welcomed,” another could be heard yelling

Despite the abuse, Mr Brown persisted in delivering the heartfelt Welcome to Country, with the crowd responding with cheers of support.

One of the men who hurled abuse at Brown has been identified as a neo-nazi.

After the ceremony, he was seen being escorted from the Shrine of Remembrance by police.

Victoria Police confirmed they are aware of a small group disrupting the dawn service at the Shrine of Remembrance this morning.

“Police identified as 26-year-old man from Kensington male in relation to the behaviour. 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.”

A solemn memorial has been marred by booing as a small cohort of hecklers interrupted a Welcome to Country ceremony at an Anzac Day dawn service.

Hushed whispers earlier filled the air as masses of people turned out under the cloak of pre-dawn darkness in Melbourne on Friday to commemorate those who paid the ultimate sacrifice.

Some 110 years since Australian and New Zealand soldiers rowed towards the desolate shores of Gallipoli at half light during World War I, tens of thousands of Victorians attended the Shrine of Remembrance for one message: lest we forget.

With the crescent moon still hanging overhead and the forecourt of the war memorial illuminated only by the deep red glow, attendees stood shoulder to shoulder in the chilly morning to mark Anzac Day.

But the peace was broken during Bunurong elder Mark Brown’s Welcome to Country, when heckles and boos came from members of the crowd.

Read the full story here.

King Charles has sent a message to Australian veterans of WWII, in this 80th anniversary year of the war’s end, thanking them for their selfless service.

“The passing of the years has in no way diminished the courageous deeds of those who sacrificed so much in the line of duty and in the pursuit of peace, freedom and justice,” the King says in the message released to coincide with Anzac Day.

“For many years now, you have carried the memory of that dreadful conflict, and the weight of grief for others who fell in your country’s service.

“I am always deeply touched when I hear of the love and pride veterans feel for their fallen comrades and family members, and that there are few days in which they do not think of them.

“I know that it is no small burden to bear that the final resting places of the fallen are often so far from home.”

The King has called for everyone to remain vigilant in upholding the values our soldiers fought for during the Second World War.

“Like others of my generation, I owe my peaceful childhood to the steadfast efforts of those of your comrades, with yourselves, in overcoming tyranny. For this I feel the most profound gratitude,” he says.

The King also pays tribute to current serving personnel and all Australian and New Zealand veterans, who he says continue to enact the indomitable spirit of Anzac.

“It is my fervent hope that the years have brought you to a place of peace, and that peace shall remain with you always.”

The Nightly’s Katina Curtis was on hand as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese solemnly as he gazed over the 25,000 people gathered for the national Anzac Day service.

They spilled off the new parade ground in front of the War Memorial and down Anzac Parade towards the shores of the lake and Parliament House.

“We who are gathered here think of those who went out to the battlefields of all wars, but did not return,” Mr Albanese said, giving the Anzac dedication.

“We feel them still near us in spirit. We wish to be worthy of their great sacrifice.”

Read the full story here.

Veterans Affairs Minister Matt Keogh says the disruption of the Anzac Day service in Melbourne is “completely inappropriate and disgusting”.

He referred to reports that booing of Indigenous soldiers and a Welcome to Country were led by someone known to be involved in neo-Nazi activities.

“Frankly, 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,” he tells Radio National.

“And so it was completely disrespectful, and is not something that’s welcomed.”

Barnaby Joyce, the shadow minister for veterans affairs, says people who decide to make Anzac Day and the dawn service a platform for their protests should be held in “total and utter contempt”.

“Any person who desecrates that in any way, shape or form is a complete and utter disgrace,” he tells Radio National, noting that Anzac Day is Australia’s most sacred day.

As well as a Palestine protester in Canberra this morning, Melbourne’s dawn service was also interrupted.

Members of a far-right group booed and heckled during the welcome to country for Victoria’s main dawn service at the Shrine of Remembrance.

Onlookers said it was “concerning” according to Sunrise as you could hear the group over the speakers, as they were standing near the microphones screaming things like “it’s Australia” and “we’re here for the Anzacs”.

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