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Kooyong MP denounces gatecrashers who interrupted election forum

Kooyong MP denounces gatecrashers who interrupted election forum

Australia Broadcast Center 24-04-2025

Kooyong MP Monique Ryan has condemned gatecrashers who interrupted an election forum on Wednesday night, dubbing them "right-wing bullies"
The community event, convened by Friends of the ABC, was attended by Ms Ryan alongside Greens candidate Jackie Carter and Labor candidate Clive Crosby at a local library.
A Friends of the ABC spokesperson said gatecrashers entered the room part way through the event, with one man loudly interrupting the speakers with claims about crime and immigration.
"He was impossible to ignore, because he was certainly yelling, and there was no stopping him," the spokesperson said.
"People were very worried."
The video was shared on social media by a group labelling itself as an 'Australian nationalist organisation", showing the three men shouting, and one female member of the audience throwing a punch at one of the men.
Ms Ryan said the woman was distressed.
"She went over to him and she actually sort of threw a punch at him," Ms Ryan said.
"She was a little lady, pretty frail, and he was not a small man, and I was really concerned about that, and the potential for that to escalate."
She said she asked one of the other candidates to call the police while audience members and organisers managed to move the men out of the room.
She said it was concerning that there seemed to be an increasing amount disruption of community events.
It comes after a disruption at a forum in Kooyong on Tuesday night, where a man challenged Ms Ryan

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