Protesters ‘urinated’ on Shrine of Remembrance, left behind broken glass and litter

When the dust settled on yesterday’s protest in Melbourne, Australian war veterans were left to deal with the ugly aftermath.

Anti-lockdown protesters urinated on the walls of Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance in a protest Prime Minister Scott Morrison has described as shameful.

Shrine of Remembrance chief executive Dean Lee has revealed the disgusting act left him shocked and cleaning up the aftermath, which also included littered beer cans and broken glass strewn across the sacred building.

“Obviously, there was a lot of broken glass. There has been urination on the walls of the memorial, which is disgusting,” Mr Lee said.

“There was rubbish strewn everywhere. Thankfully, no permanent damage. The reality is we‘ve got the shrine clean first thing this morning. We are as we should be, a quiet, peaceful place of reflection to the honoured memory of our service men and women.”

Protesters at the Shrine of Remembrance yesterday. Picture: Alex Coppel

Dean Lee, CEO of the Shrine of Remembrance. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at protesters on Wednesday after they headed to the shrine shouting “lest we forget” to demonstrate against lockdowns, mandatory vaccinations and the two-week shutdown of Victoria’s construction industry.

Mr Lee also raised concerns that some of the protesters had links with far-right and neo-Nazi groups.

“I can’t speak to what their objective may have been in choosing this place. We do know, however, that some members in that protest group do associate with nationalist interests and some of those people choose to subvert the meaning of a symbol like the shrine monument to their own purpose,” he said.

“The true meaning of the shrine is the suffering of a community in the First World War, when 89,000 Australians were deployed to conflicts overseas; 19,100 of those people were killed and did not return to Australia.

“It is a sacred site, not just for people in Melbourne, but for Australians everywhere.”

Protesters on the steps of the shrine. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

Speaking in Washington D.C., the Prime Minister said the protesters should be “ashamed”.

“I think that the scenes were disgraceful, and the conduct was disgraceful,” Mr Morrison told reporters in the American capital.

“I think that the RSL president put it best – this is a sacred place, it is not a place of protest.

“It was disrespectful, and it dishonoured those Australians who have made the sacrifice and I would hope any and all who were in that should be ashamed.”

The Victorian RSL said there was no excuse for using the shrine as a protest.

“Under no circumstances, ever, should the shrine be a place of ­protest,’’ the RSL said.

“If any individuals or groups choose to express their political views, positions or ideological theories in the grounds of the shrine at any time, they are completely disrespecting the sanctity of this honoured space – those men and women of the Australian Defence Force who have lost their lives, and all Victorian veterans.”

Originally published as Protesters ‘urinated’ on Shrine of Remembrance, left behind broken glass and litter