‘It wasn’t hard’: Man who confronted PM in hotel lobby walked straight in

A man who claims he ambushed the prime minister in a Melbourne hotel lobby said he walked straight through the front door despite an apparent increase in security measures amid rising threats against Australian politicians.

Daniel Jones claimed responsibility for the confrontation on Tuesday, alongside alt-right group Melbourne Freedom Rally, in an incident that sparked safety concerns about the ability of extremists to infiltrate secure locations during the election campaign.

Daniel Jones posted a video on social media claiming responsibility for the ambush.

Jones posted a video to social media on Wednesday morning saying “beefed up” security measures were not apparent when he confronted Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at his hotel, and that he entered unimpeded by security.

“I walked clean through the front door of the lobby because there was no security. I walked up and ordered myself coffee and decided to sit down and flip through Facebook and relax and enjoy my coffee,” he said.

Jones, a self-styled bodyguard to far-right figure Avi Yemini, said there appeared to be a few security personnel watching a perimeter and some guarding the PM, but nobody questioned him.

“There’s no details I can give you about some James Bond stuff. It was literally just walk through the lobby door,” Jones said.

“It wasn’t hard. They talk about beefed-up security, [but] there was no issue.”

Security around the two main party leaders was increased after the creation of an Australian Federal Police (AFP) task force to heighten protection for politicians during the election campaign. The AFP provides full-time protection to the prime minister.

Security industry specialist Scott Taylor questioned how the men in the video had discovered where the prime minister was staying, and said tracking sensitive information online was an important factor in providing security.

“[The PM’s security] should be monitoring the digital footprint. They should know if information about [his] movements has been shared, and that’s one of the factors that comes into your planning,” the founder of security firm Praesidium Risk and Resilience said.

An AFP spokesperson said the agency invested significantly in the safety of politicians and would not comment on details of parliamentary protection matters.

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

Neither of the men threatened anyone directly in the video, but a Labor source said the incident was concerning and underscored the growing risk of extremism in politics. The AFP is understood to have been aware of the incident; the prime minister’s office declined to comment.

In the video, one man interrupts Albanese 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 security before Sugden says: “Unfortunately, you’re not staying here, so you can leave.”

Albanese was asked about the latest security breach during a campaign appearance in Melbourne on Wednesday morning.

“I have no interest in going to go into security discussions, that’s not in the interests of security,” he said.

Asked if he would like to interact more with the public, he responded: “Nothing’s stopped me.”

“I’ve engaged with people … I went for a walk around Adelaide … Mall, I went for a walk around Perth,” he said. “I think it’s really important, and it’s something I’ve done. I’ve gone into uncontrolled environments time and time again.”

At a press conference on Wednesday, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton commended the law enforcement tasked with protecting himself and Albanese.

“As the prime minister rightly pointed out, it’s not a lockdown area, he’s in a public space... and I think the federal police do a fantastic job, and I’m sure on that the prime minister and I could agree.”

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

Jones’ self-defence outfit has in the past been labelled vigilantism by Victoria Police for vowing to set up citizen patrols.

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

AFP chief Reece Kershaw warned just before the election was called that threats against politicians had doubled in the past two years, prompting the agency to increase protection for MPs and their staff during the 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 in black, 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 Albanese to reveal that authorities have launched legal proceedings to protect him after a “serious incident”.

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