Anti‑immigration group denies organising Anzac Day booing after urging followers to be loud

On the morning of Australia’s Anzac Day, a crowd gathered at Sydney’s traditional dawn ceremony to commemorate the fallen while Indigenous elders delivered welcome‑to‑country speeches, only to have the proceedings repeatedly disrupted by coordinated booing from members of right‑wing activist circles, marking the second consecutive year such interference has marred the national observance.

In the hours preceding the ceremony, an organisation identified in the media as an anti‑immigration advocacy group posted a question on its social platform inquiring how loudly its followers intended to make themselves heard, a message that, while couched in ambiguous phrasing, unmistakably encouraged the very conduct that later unfolded under the solemn pre‑dawn sky.

When footage of the disruptions circulated, the group issued a statement denying any responsibility for arranging the boos, insisting that it had not organised the activity, a defence that appears contradictory given the earlier solicitation for volume and raises questions about the sincerity of its claimed non‑involvement.

Among those subjected to the derisive chorus was Uncle Ray Minniecon, a veteran who had been invited to give an acknowledgment of country and, according to his own remarks, found the mockery both unexpected and unnecessary, thereby underscoring how the disruption not only targeted the cultural protocol but also personally affronted a former service member whose presence epitomises the very sacrifices the ceremony intends to honour.

The recurrence of such disturbances, coupled with the group’s post‑event denial, highlights a broader institutional gap whereby law‑enforcement and event‑organising bodies appear either unwilling or unable to pre‑emptively address the predictable incitement of extremist participants, thereby allowing a pattern of orchestrated dissent to persist under the veneer of free expression while simultaneously exposing the inadequacy of existing safeguards designed to protect the dignity of Indigenous ceremonial contributions.

Published: April 27, 2026