Campaign security concern as Albanese ambushed by alt-right media at Melbourne hotel

April 15, 2025 journo

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been ambushed by alt-right video makers in the lobby of his Melbourne hotel, sparking safety concerns about the ability of extremists to infiltrate secure locations despite increased security on the campaign trail.

A Labor source said the incident was concerning and underscored the growing risk of extremism around politics. The AFP is understood to have been aware of the incident and the prime minister’s office declined to comment.

A video circulating on far-right social media accounts on Tuesday showed two men confronting Albanese, demanding answers about housing and immigration.

One man interrupts the prime minister mid-conversation with communications staffer Fiona Sugden, saying: “There are hundreds of thousands of Australians around the country, who are unable to afford housing … when are you going to put Australians first?”

Sugden asks the man his name before the prime minister’s security detail manages to push him away. The video then switches to the view of a second man, shouting after Albanese in the lobby: “Albo, how do you feel about the rise in immigration, mate? Do you think it’s fair?”

The man argues with the prime minster’s security detail before Sugden says: “Unfortunately, you’re not staying here, so you can leave.”

Neither man threatens anyone directly, but it is not known how the pair slipped past security or were able to approach the prime minister’s group in the hotel’s foyer without being stopped.

Melbourne Freedom Rally claimed responsibility for confronting Albanese about housing at the hotel.

The group led massive protests through the COVID-19 pandemic, promoted baseless conspiracy theories about doctors fraudulently claiming that people have died of COVID to exaggerate the scale of the pandemic, and campaigned for an end to pandemic measures. Its key organisers had links to the far-right.

Melbourne self-defence outfit Tactical Force Combatives, whose owner Daniel Jones has served as a bodyguard to far-right figure Avi Yemeni, has also claimed credit for taking part in the ambush. The group has been labelled vigilantes in the past by Victoria Police for vowing to set up citizen patrols.

Heightened security concerns have meant both Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s movements have been kept under wraps this campaign.

The Australian Federal Police’s chief Reece Kershaw issued a warning just before the election was called that threats against politicians have doubled in the past two years, prompting the agency to increase protection for MPs and their staff during the election campaign.

Tuesday’s ambush came just two days after masked neo-Nazis rallied outside senior Coalition senator James Paterson’s Melbourne office on Sunday, chanting racist slogans and declaring both Labor and the Liberals were traitors to the white race.

About 30 people dressed purely in black, with their faces obscured by hoods and stockings, stood outside Paterson’s office in South Melbourne as one unmasked man yelled into a microphone, claiming both parties created a “third world Australia”.

Last week, it was revealed Dutton was the target of an alleged terrorist plot, and a 16-year-old boy was facing a court accused of buying bomb-making ingredients and testing explosives intending to launch an attack.

This prompted the prime minister to reveal that authorities have launched legal proceedings to protect him after a “serious incident”.

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