A group of hecklers booed Indigenous Australians as they gathered in Melbourne to commemorate their war dead on Anzac Day.
Boos and jeers echoed around the Shrine of Remembrance where some 50,000 people had gathered for the dawn service on Friday.
Anzac Day is one of the most crucial national days in Australia and New Zealand, commemorating the anniversary of the first major military action by the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, or Anzac, during World War I.
On 25 April 1915, Anzac forces landed in Gallipoli in Turkey as part of an Allied campaign to capture the Dardanelles and weaken the Ottoman Empire. The campaign proved ill-fated, resulting in the deaths of around 8,700 Australians and 2,700 New Zealanders over eight months of brutal fighting.
The solemn mood of the event to remember fallen soldiers was disturbed as hecklers started booing and yelling when a local Indigenous man named Mark Brown began the service with a ceremony in which Indigenous Australians welcome visitors to their traditional land.
Yelling "this is our country" and "we don't have to be welcomed", the hecklers said, echoing a slogan of the minor party Trumpet of Patriots.
The group of hecklers allegedly included prominent self-described Nazi Jacob Hersant, who was seen being escorted from the service by police.
Members of the crowd tried to suppress the boos with applause to show respect for the occasion.
The incident was condemned by politicians, including prime minister Anthony Albanese, who said such incidents at Melbourne and Perth services were a disgrace.
"The disruption of Anzac Day is beyond contempt and the people responsible must face the full force of the law," Mr Albanese said. "This was an act of low cowardice on a day when we honour courage and sacrifice."
“A neo-Nazi disrupting Anzac Day is abhorrent, un-Australian and disgraceful”, Mr Albanese said. “The people responsible must face the full force of the law.”
The Victoria police said a 26-year-old man from Kensington who was removed from the event was being investigated over the heckling and could be charged.
"Police are aware of a small group of people disrupting the dawn service at the Shrine of Remembrance this morning," the police said. "He has subsequently been interviewed for offensive behaviour and police will proceed via summons."
Victoria premier Jacinta Allan said she absolutely condemned the suspected neo-Nazi who came to disrupt the event. “To pierce the sombre silence and to pierce the solemnity of the dawn service isn’t just disrespectful, it dishonours the very thing that the men and women who fought and lost their lives is about,” Ms Allan said.
"For a neo-Nazi to come along and show that level of disrespect and dishonour to every man and woman who has served our nation with pride, honour and dignity – I absolutely condemn this behaviour."
Mr Albanese and opposition leader Peter Dutton took the day off campaigning ahead of the general election on 3 May as a mark of respect.
"They have no place at all and they are a stain on our national fabric and they are not part of the Australian culture,” Mr Dutton said about the hecklers.
"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...I'm sure that every right-thinking Australian would be disgusted and appalled by the behaviour."
Veteran affairs minister Matt Keogh said the "booing was led by someone who's a known neo-Nazi”.
"We're commemorating some of those soldiers who fell in a war that was fought against that sort of hateful ideology and so it was completely disrespectful and it's not something that is welcome at Anzac Day commemorations ever," Mr Keogh said.
New Zealand prime minister Christopher Luxon traveled to Gallipoli to commemorate the 110th anniversary of the landing day.
He told a dawn service at Anzac Cove that New Zealand's contribution of 16,000 soldiers to the Gallipoli campaign was disproportionately large from a national population that was then only about a million.
The service was attended by King Charles’ sister Princess Anne, who represented the British royal family, as well as the king's representative in Australia, governor general Sam Mostyn.
Additional reporting by agencies.
