Five court outcomes over Welcome to Country booing at Anzac Day services have been handed down in 24 hours across two states.

In Melbourne Magistrates Court on Thursday 4 June, Magistrate James FitzGerald found Jacob Hersant, Michael Nelson, Nathan Bull and Ian Harvey Lomax guilty of behaving in an offensive manner in a public place during the Anzac Day 2025 dawn service at the Shrine of Remembrance. The Bunurong Elder Uncle Mark Brown was delivering a Welcome to Country to about 50,000 attendees when the booing broke out. The men were filmed outside court by 7News.

Hersant, 27, and Nelson, 22, were convicted and fined $1,900 each. Bull, 24, was fined $1,000 without conviction. Lomax, 35, a Ballarat dentist suspended from practising, was fined $800 without conviction. Two further charges against the men were dismissed.

The day before, in Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court, Judge Greg Grogin convicted Penrith labourer Eli Toby, 24, of committing a nuisance in or on a war memorial after booing during the Acknowledgement of Country at the 2026 Martin Place dawn service. Toby was fined $880, with a conviction recorded.

Melbourne: who was in the dock

The Melbourne case was the larger and the harder. Three of the four men have publicly documented far right histories. Hersant, Nelson and Bull have been described in court and by mainstream outlets including the ABC and AAP as white supremacists and former members of the now disbanded National Socialist Network. Hersant has prior convictions including being the first Victorian convicted of performing a Nazi salute in public, for which he served a month in jail after losing an appeal, and a violent disorder conviction over a group attack on hikers. Lomax has been linked to neo Nazi rallies per allegations reported in the National Indigenous Times.

Magistrate FitzGerald said Hersant had shouted "we don't want to be welcomed" and "what about the Anzacs" during the service. Nelson "goaded" the crowd by saying he had done more for Australia than the Anzacs. Lomax booed for a short period before being escorted out with Nelson. The crowd's applause for Uncle Mark Brown drowned out the booing.

The men's defence cited a Tony Abbott interview and Institute of Public Affairs survey as evidence of community opposition to Welcome to Country at Anzac Day services. Magistrate FitzGerald acknowledged there were "differing views in the community" about the ceremonies but found the conduct breached Victoria's Summary Offences Act.

Premier Jacinta Allan said at the time of the 2025 incident: "A neo Nazi disrupting this day is appalling, it has no place here."

Outside court, the three men were heckled by anti fascist activist Jasmine Duff. Police separated the two sides.

Sydney: a different category of case

Toby's case is in a different category. He pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity, received the 25% discount that brings, and has no prior criminal record. He was identified by 7News and the Daily Mail as having previously attended a National Socialist Network rally outside NSW Parliament House in November 2024, though he has not been charged in connection with that and was not part of an organised group action at the Sydney service.

Asked three times by Judge Grogin if he was sorry for what he did, Toby couldn't say yes. "I'm sorry it has caused such an uproar, and I'm sorry to my family that it has caused such drama," he offered. Pressed for a yes or no, he stood silent before saying "I don't have an answer" and "I have mixed feelings."

The man delivering the Acknowledgement at Martin Place that morning, Pastor Uncle Ray Minniecon, is an Australian Defence Force veteran. His grandfather served as a Light Horseman at the Battle of Beersheba in 1917.

The wider debate doesn't rest on the defendants

The harder question for media outlets covering this story is how to separate two things. One is the conduct of the people in the dock, which the courts have now settled. The other is the saturation of Welcome to Country across Australian public life, which the polling, the Fair Work Commission and Indigenous elders themselves have been arguing about for years. Both can be true at once.

The wider argument doesn't rest on the moral authority of the convicted. It rests on:

  • Institute of Public Affairs polling by Dynata, May 2025, sample of 1,005 Australians: 56% agreed Welcome to Country ceremonies have become divisive, with only 17% disagreeing. 46% want Welcome to Country dropped from Anzac Day. 49% want it dropped from sporting matches. 48% of Australians aged 18 to 24 agreed the ceremonies have become divisive.
  • The Juru people of the Burdekin Shire, who voted on 5 December 2024 to end Welcome to Country ceremonies on their own ancestral land. Juru Elder Randall Ross told 4BC the ceremony had become "a business that supports certain individuals" and was being "abused."
  • Former Labor Party national president and Indigenous leader Warren Mundine, who backed the Juru elders: "It's like everywhere you go, you have a welcome. On planes, before giving a speech, lectures, events, meetings, sports event, concert, dinner, presentations, breakfast, lunch, dinner, people are getting sick of it."
  • The Fair Work Commission's 2025 ruling for Shaun Turner, a Darebin Council street sweeper sacked for questioning an Acknowledgement of Country at a toolbox meeting. The FWC found his dismissal "harsh, unjust or unreasonable" and Turner got his job back.

None of those voices were among the Melbourne four. None of them were Eli Toby. The argument that Welcome to Country has been overused is being made by Indigenous Australians, by independent researchers, by the federal industrial umpire, and by close to half the country in the polling.

Those defending the practice

Other Indigenous leaders, veterans groups and government voices have pushed back hard on calls to cut back the ceremonies.

Larrakia Elder Richard Fejo told SBS those responsible for the heckling at dawn services were "a minority that are distastefully, but deliberately trying to use this as a tactic to create division."

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Katie Kiss publicly criticised the framing that Welcome to Country is a welcome to Australia, describing that as "a deliberate and intended misinformation to the public to turn people against Aboriginal people."

Joseph West, Chief Executive of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Veterans Association, said in a statement that "ANZAC Day is defined by discipline, respect, and remembrance. Booing during any part of a commemoration falls short of those standards."

Uncle Ray Minniecon told the ABC after the Sydney service that he wanted Australians to understand "this always was and always will be Aboriginal land."

Defence Minister Richard Marles and the Albanese Labor government condemned the booing and stood by the use of Welcome to Country ceremonies. NSW Premier Chris Minns said the spontaneous applause that broke out for Uncle Ray Minniecon afterwards showed the views of the vast majority at the service.

Where the politics sits

The political response split across familiar lines, and One Nation was first off the mark.

Senator Pauline Hanson posted a statement on her verified X account on the day of the dawn services. She wrote: "At ANZAC Day services across the country, some booed the Welcome to Country. I don't support that. ANZAC Day should never be disrupted. It's a sacred day to honour the men and women who gave everything for our country."

She continued: "But I do understand why people are fed up. We said no to The Voice. Yet everywhere we turn, this divisive political agenda is still being pushed down our throats at every ceremony, every event, every time we come together as Australians."

Hanson also called out the media response: "What I will not accept is the media and politicians attacking everyday Aussies who have had enough. They're lining up to smear anyone who expresses frustration as a "racist" or a "neo-Nazi." That is disgraceful."

One Nation's formal policy position, published on the party website, calls for scrapping mandatory Welcome to Country and Acknowledgement ceremonies at schools, flights, sporting events and Anzac Day. The party cites the IPA polling.

The Coalition position was mixed. Opposition Leader Angus Taylor condemned the booing as "un-Australian" on ABC Insiders, but said Welcome to Country ceremonies are "overused" and as a result "devalued." Former Liberal leader Peter Dutton, during the 2025 federal election campaign, described the ceremonies as "overdone" and said they should be reserved for significant events. Sussan Ley, the current Liberal leader, has signalled continued support for Welcome to Country at major Coalition events.

The RSL review is still open

RSL Australia National President Peter Tinley AM has confirmed a review of Welcome to Country guidelines as part of the organisation's standard post Anzac Day process. RSL NSW acting president, retired Brigadier Vince Williams, apologised to Uncle Ray Minniecon directly and called the booing "the most appalling act I've ever seen at a dawn service." Tinley has said the inclusion of a Welcome to Country is "a localised decision, made at the discretion of individual sub-branches" and that the RSL would "sharpen our guidance to make that clearer."

No final national guidance has been issued. RSL Victoria State President Dr Mark Schröffel issued a statement on 1 May 2026 with the unanimous endorsement of the state executive that calls to ban local organisers from including Welcome to Country are "inconsistent with the same local autonomy that many Sub-Branches rightly value." Some sub-branches, including Townsville and Armidale, have moved to consult their members on whether to keep Welcome to Country at local services.

What's been settled and what hasn't

The courts have now made their calls. In Sydney, 66 seconds of booing on Anzac Day at the Martin Place Cenotaph cost a Penrith labourer $880 and a conviction. In Melbourne, four men were fined for the 2025 Shrine of Remembrance disruption, with two convictions recorded. The conduct on those two mornings is no longer up for argument.

The wider conversation isn't going back in the bottle. The RSL review remains open. The polling stays where it is. The Juru elders, Warren Mundine, the Fair Work Commission and the leaders on both sides of politics will all be part of where this lands next.

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