Greg Hunt condemns behaviour towards Michael Gunner at anti-mandate rally, moved to tears recounting past incident with family

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt has condemned the behaviour towards NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner at the anti-mandate rally at the weekend, also recounting a past incident with his own family.

UPDATE: FEDERAL Health Minister Greg Hunt was moved to tears recounting a past incident with his family, after being questioned about the recent threats made to NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner.

In a press conference on Wednesday, Mr Hunt criticised the publicising of Mr Gunner’s home address at the Darwin anti-mandate rally at the weekend.

Demonstrators shouted out Mr Gunner’s home address and threatened to attack him, with a video of the incident streamed on Facebook. The video was later removed.

“Let me condemn clearly, absolutely unequivocally the attack on Michael Gunner’s house and what would have been deep concern for his family,” Mr Hunt said.

“I’ve never really talked about it but there was a period where the lives of my children were threatened … some years ago.

“It was a matter of great concern but we have very fine federal police in this country.”

The Territory Response Group was sent to patrol Mr Gunner’s house, with the Chief also revealing his family had to leave their home.

An emotional Greg Hunt with tears in his eyes at a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: Gary Ramage / NCA NewsWire

Mr Hunt offered his support to Mr Gunner and urged Australians to check their respect and tolerance.

“To those that think violence or the threat of violence is acceptable in any way, shape or form, it is not,” he said.

“As a country we have to I think relearn the value of respect and I don’t mean holding our parliamentarians up on any pedestal, they’re not better than anybody but they’re not worse than anybody,” he said.

“They are overwhelmingly public servants that seek to serve the nation and there will be differing views and differing approaches but this notion of national tolerance and mutual respect is something I believe in passionately.”

EARLIER: CHIEF Minister Michael Gunner has revealed his wife and son had to leave their house at the weekend after threats from anti-vaccination protesters.

Demonstrators shouted Mr Gunner’s home address and threatened to attack him at a rally held in Darwin on Saturday.

Mr Gunner said he was extremely worried about his wife and son’s safety.

“The priority was obviously people knew where we lived, it was at a rally it was on the internet, you had no idea who was watching and my clear instinct was obviously don’t be at the house the advice we received was don’t be at the house and so Kristy and Hudson got out of the house,” he said.

Mr Gunner said his wife, ABC journalist Kristy O’Brien, appeared less concerned about the situation than he was.

“Kristy’s probably more of a feisty sort, so she obviously left the house but I think there was a temptation to stay and get her point across,” he said.

“Obviously you need to make sure you’re not in danger and I can’t speak for Kristy but obviously Kristy’s a feisty personality.”

It’s understood the NT police Territory Response Group was sent to patrol Mr Gunner’s house on Saturday night, but the Chief Minister would not comment on the security details.

“I think people understand for good reasons I can’t provide details on what the security precautions are or have been to make people safe, we don’t want people knowing how we’re making sure we’re making sure that myself and my family are safe but obviously precautions had to be taken because of the threats that were made and my address was given out, and not just given out, people were encouraged to go to my house,” he said.

Police say at least 1000 people were at Saturday’s rally, while organisers believe up to 3000 people attended.

NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner and son Hudson. Picture: Glenn Campbell

They took to the streets after the NT Government announced mandatory vaccination for any working in contact with a vulnerable person.

The move has attracted criticism all the way to the United States.

Republican Senator Ted Cruz weighed in on Twitter, describing the policy as “Covid tyranny” and saying it was “depressing and sad”.

Mr Gunner tweeted in response that the NT had seen zero Covid deaths, compared to almost 70,000 in Texas.

That tweet has since gone viral.

“I am genuinely surprised,” Mr Gunner said.

“I thought I just made a reasonable point back to Senator Cruz. I was not expecting so many Australians to jump on the case, and to be fair, so many Americans to say we wish we’d seen a similar response from our legislators in America that put American lives first.”

Thousands of people in the Northern Territory remain unconvinced about the Government’s policy.

The Country Liberal Party Opposition has described it as “draconian”, while Federal CLP Senator Sam McMahon likened it to Nazi Germany.

But Mr Gunner is not backing down.

“You have a choice, if you want to work in a setting that interacts with vulnerable people, a classroom with kids who can’t be vaccinated, you can choose that, I’m asking you to choose to be vaccinated,” Mr Gunner said.

“That child doesn’t get to choose to be vaccinated. An Aboriginal person in a remote community doesn’t choose to be vulnerable. You get to choose whether you work in that setting or not and we’re saying the health advice here is very clear that with the Territory and our vulnerable settings you need to be vaccinated if you want to work there.”