Teal MP Monique Ryan intervenes at friends of ABC forum descends into chaos after punch thrown
Chaos has erupted at a candidates' forum in Melbourne after anti-immigration protesters gate crashed the event and was punched by an elderly woman.
A video posted on social media has captured Matt Trihey from the anti-immigration and right-wing National Workers Alliance storming into a friends of the ABC-organised forum in the electorate of Kooyong on Wednesday night.
Teal MP Monique Ryan, who was speaking at the event, could be seen intervening after a woman walked up to Mr Trihey and attempted to punch him in the face. — Melbourne Freedom Rally 😀🇦🇰 (@MelbFreedom) April 23, 2025
Labor candidate Clive Crosby and Greens candidate Jackie Carter also spoke at the forum, which was attended by a few dozen people.
Footage showed Mr Trihey interrupting discussions as he stormed in, addressing the room loudly from the back saying 'We're just here to ask about immigration and crime'.
He then began shouting about "the correlation between immigration and crime' and continued to yell and point at the speakers.
"This is something these people need to answer because the people are being put at risk," he said.
One man in the crowd stood up and addressed the protestor saying, 'how dare you come in here doing this?' before more attendees began to get up out their seats.
"We are governed by parasites. We are governed by people who have no care for the people of this country," Mr Trihey said.
Several screaming outbursts from a woman could be heard and others shouted 'get out' while Mr Trihey refused to be escorted outside.
An elderly woman then walked up to the protestor and punched him.
The pair were separated before Ms Ryan rushed over to intervene in the crowd that had gathered around them.
Victoria Police confirmed officers were called to a library on Cotham Road, Kew about 6.30pm after reports three men had disrupted a meeting inside.
Officers had spoken to the men, who were removed from the building before police arrived.
No further complaints have been made to police and an investigation is ongoing.
Ms Ryan told ABC Radio on Thursday morning that the forum had been going for about 15-20 minutes before she noticed three men enter the back of the room.
'It felt a bit strange. They clearly weren't there to attend the forum, I'm not sure that they had any great interest in the media diversity in this country,' Ms Ryan.
'They looked a bit menacing and they pretty much immediately started shouting and disrupted the meeting from for about 20 minutes.'
Many of the audience members who were 'a little bit older,' were "really taken aback" by the protester's disruption, she said.
The woman who threw a fist at Mr Trihey was a "little lady" who had become distressed by their appearance.
'She went over to him, and she 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, where he did give her a push or something like that.
'(I) firmly moved her away and asked another member of the audience to look after her. She actually looked a bit taken aback by her own action in doing that … I spoke to her afterwards, and she was a bit horrified by the whole thing."
The Teal MP then asked one of the other candidates to call police as audience members and event organisers moved the protesters out the room, she said.
'It was stupid, pointless posturing, basically by these right-wing bullies … these people were just undertaking pointless disruption.'
Teal MP's have had controversial experiences with debates this election cycle.
Wentworth MP Allegra Spender refused to participate in a Sky News debate in her Eastern Sydney seat, despite previously agreeing to one on live TV after this network declined to kill a news story her office didn't like.
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