‘This egg has united the people’: Will ‘Egg Boy’ Connolly speaks out

Will “Egg Boy” Connolly says he knows his controversial egging of Senator Fraser Anning was wrong but that his actions have drawn attention to the victims of the Christchurch attack.

Will “Egg Boy” Connolly says he knows his controversial egging of Senator Fraser Anning was wrong but that his actions have united people and drawn attention to the victims of the Christchurch terror attack.

The teenager spoke out for the first time about the egging incident, which has generated headlines and the world.

“I understand what I did was not the right thing to do, he said.

“However, this egg has united people. Money has been raised, tens of thousands of dollars has been raised for those (Christchurch) victims.

Will Connolly aka EggBoy on The Project, Ch 10

Connolly, from the Melbourne bayside suburb of Hampton, told The Project’s Hamish Macdonald he had been feeling a whirlwind of emotions since he threw the egg at Senator Anning during a Melbourne press conference on March 17.

“It’s been crazy, I’ve had a lot of emotions. I’ve been stressed, I’ve been happy. Just overwhelmed in general.”

Fraser Anning is egged by 17 year old William Connolly #Eggboy.

After Connolly threw the egg at Sentor Anning, the politician turned and struck him with an open hand.

The teenager was then wrestled to the ground and held there by Senator Anning’s far-right wing supporters — which included convicted criminal Neil Erickson — despite pleas to let the boy go as he was not resisting.

Connolly told The Project he was driven to carry out the egging after Senator Anning’s statement that appeared to blame immigration for the Christchurch terror attacks.

Fraser Anning is egged by 17 year old William Connolly #Eggboy.

“After the tragedy in Christchurch, I thought the world should be supporting all those victims and giving them love and compassion,” the 17-year-old said.

“The Senator released a statement, which was a divisive hate speech blaming the victims for the attack and I was just flat out disgusted.

“Not many people know this, but I actually went in there to listen to him for an hour to see if he could change my mind.

“In my mind, I wanted to forgive him but then he started saying some more things ... which empowered me to egg him.”

When asked by interviewer Hamish Macdonald if he was an activist of any kind, Connolly replied: “I don’t know much about politics of any kind, I’m not pro any specific religion, I’m just pro-humanity.”

Connolly told The Project he had not expected Senator Anning to react.

“I didn’t expect him to react, I thought I was just going to walk out there. I didn’t think this was going to blow up,” he said.

“In fact, it’s blown up completely out of proportion to the point where it’s kind of embarrassing because too much of the attention is brought away from the real victims suffering, we should be focusing on them.

“I was just going to show my mates, it was just meant to be a few laughs to mates.”

He said he wanted to “stay calm” when he was wrestled to the ground by Senator Anning’s team.

“I knew not to resist. I knew police weren’t far.

“I understand what I did was not the right thing to do and I can understand why some people reacted the way they did.”

Will Connolly speaks to Hamish Macdonald on The Project.

Macdonald asked Connolly if he though there was ever any reason for people to attack a serving politician.

“No, there’s no reason to physically attack anyone,” he said firmly.

Connolly said his mother was glad he had stood up for what he believed in but that she disagreed with the way her son did it.

Connolly said the money raised would help people affected by the Christchurch terror attack.

The teen joked that he had actually been called Egg Boy before as he used to bring boiled eggs to school for lunch and his female classmates told him to go away as they “reeked”.

Following the egging William shared a Snapchat video in which he said: “Don’t egg politicians, you get tackled by 30 bogans at the same time, I learnt the hard way. F**k.”

A GoFundMe campaign was started in support of William and to date has raised more than $79,000

Senator Anning has said he had no regrets about his reaction to the egging as he had been defending himself.

“I don’t regret anything I do,” he said. “I defended myself, that’s what Australians do usually, they defend themselves … he got a slap across the face which is what his mother should have given him a long time ago because he’s been misbehaving badly.”