Wild footage captured the moment pro-Palestinian protesters were kept at bay by police as they attempted to storm a dinner party attended by Anthony Albanese.
A group of about 20 protesters, including a woman carrying two young children, scuffled with police on Friday outside the dining room of the luxury Rydges Palmerston hotel, about 20 minutes southeast of Darwin, in the Northern Territory.
The Labor Party was hosting a fundraising dinner at the time with tickets costing a staggering $5,000 a head and included Northern Territory Chief Minister Natasha Fyles among its guests.
Plainclothes officers and hotel staff barricaded the room where the prime minister was and the doors were hastily closed as protesters attempted to storm the room.
With their progress blocked, they chanted loudly while brandishing Palestinian flags and other signs demanding that Israel end its military action in Gaza.
A protester is pushed from the dining room of the Northern Territory hotel where Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was attending a reception
Some demonstrators were pushed back along the corridor, with a police officer even managing to detain some in the elevator.
Others stood near the entrance shouting “Free Palestine” or “ceasefire” while trying to press against the windows to hold up signs.
A protester could be heard reprimanding the police.
“Babies and children are being murdered every day and you are defending them,” she shouted.
“Shame on you, shame on you,” she said.
An arrest has been reported.
Mitchell Chute of the Free Palestine group said NT News they had a “moral obligation” to challenge the Prime Minister.
“There is a genocide in Palestine and Australia is supporting it through its diplomatic and military relations,” Mr Chute said.
“The people of Darwin and Palmerston have demonstrated tonight that they will not stand idly by and allow their governments to support crimes against humanity.
Another protester is grabbed by the scruff of the neck by a plainclothes police officer and pushed into an elevator.
Mr Albanese in much more relaxed circumstances with Northern Territory Chief Minister Natasha Fyles
“At the same time as the Prime Minister and the territory’s politicians were attending this exclusive secret $5,000-a-head dinner, Palestinian children, women and men are being killed.
“The Australian government has blood on its hands.”
Friday night’s dinner was also attended by Ms Fyles, who earlier in the day had been seen with Mr Albanese in much more relaxed circumstances overlooking Darwin Bay.
Mr Albanese said the two discussed “critical minerals, the space industry and defence”.
Thousands of people continue to protest Israeli military retaliation following deadly incursions by Hamas terrorists on October 7 across Australia.
A crowd of a few hundred people gathered outside the prime minister’s election office in Marrickville, a western suburb of Sydney, on Friday to call for an end to the fighting.
A large crowd demanding the same thing marched through central Sydney on Saturday afternoon and a similar march is expected to take place in central Melbourne on Sunday.
