Wild footage captured the moment pro-Palestinian protesters were held at bay by police as they tried to storm a dinner attended by Anthony Albanese.
A group of about 20 protesters, including a woman with two small children in her arms, clashed with police outside the dining room of the swanky Rydges Palmerston hotel, about 20 minutes southeast of Darwin, in the Northern Territory, on Friday.
Labor at the time held a fundraising dinner with tickets costing as much as $5,000 per person and counted Northern Territory Chief Minister Natasha Fyles among its guests.
Plainclothes officers and hotel staff barricaded the room with the prime minister inside and the doors were hastily closed as protesters tried to storm the room.
With their progress blocked, they sang loudly as they held up Palestinian flags and other signs, demanding that Israel stop military action in Gaza.
A protester is pushed away from the dining room of the Northern Territory hotel where Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was attending a meeting
Some protesters were pushed back down the hallway, with one officer even managing to wedge a couple into the elevator.
Others stood at the entrance shouting “free Palestine” or “armistice,” trying to press against the glass windows to hold up banners.
You heard a female protester cursing officers.
“Babies and children are being murdered every day and you are defending them,” she shouted.
“Shame on you, shame on you,” she said.
One arrest was reported.
Mitchell Chute, of the group Free Palestine, said NT news they had a ‘moral obligation’ to involve the Prime Minister.
“There is a genocide taking place in Palestine and Australia, through diplomatic and military ties, is supporting it,” Chute said.
“The people of Darwin and Palmerston have shown tonight that they will not allow their governments to support crimes against humanity.
Another demonstrator is grabbed by the scruff of the neck by a plainclothes police officer and pushed into an elevator
Mr Albanese is in much more relaxed circumstances with Northern Territory Chief Minister Natasha Fyles
“While the Prime Minister and area politicians attended this secret, exclusive $5,000-per-head dinner, Palestinian children, women and men are being murdered.
“The Australian government has blood on its hands.”
Friday night’s dinner was also attended by Ms Fyles, who was seen earlier in the day with Mr Albanese in much more relaxed circumstances overlooking Darwin Bay.
Mr Albanese said the pair discussed “critical minerals, the space industry and defence”.
Thousands continue to protest against Israel’s military reprisals for the deadly October 7 raids by Hamas terrorists across Australia.
On Friday, a crowd of several hundred people gathered outside the prime minister’s electoral office in the western Sydney suburb of Marrickville to call for an end to the fighting.
A large crowd demanding the same marched through central Sydney on Saturday afternoon and a similar march will take place in central Melbourne on Sunday.