The urn was boiled, the nibbles laid out at the back of the room, and the conversation had turned to the percentage of the federal budget spent on the ABC when things took a dramatic turn.
Kooyong MP Monique Ryan had just remarked that the national broadcaster’s annual budget was “about as much as we spend on keeping 100 refugees on Nauru and PNG” when a man’s voice suddenly bellowed from the back of the room.
“We’re just here to ask about immigration and crime,” he said.
In a room at the Kew Library filled with civic-minded locals waiting to hear from the Kooyong candidates about the state of the media, the arrival of the three unexpected men disrupted the calm.
Leading them was a bald man with a goatee, wearing a black T-shirt emblazoned with the logo of the “Australian Workers Alliance” – a self-described nationalist organisation whose mission includes the “preservation of Western culture and identity”. One of the other men wore a leather jacket and filmed the room with his phone – a dead giveaway that the goal was to capture a viral “gotcha” moment. The third man, dressed in a grey hoodie and sneakers, loitered nearby with his hands in his pockets as back-up.
An unsuspecting convener approached the man and asked if he had registered. He said yes – then launched into his tirade.
Matt Trihey at the forum at Kew Library on April 23.Credit: Rachael Dexter
“I want to know when political crime will address the correlation between immigration and crime. When will the politicians address it?
“We have an unprecedented correlation between immigration and crime. When will the politicians address it? You are putting our people at risk,” he boomed, pointing his finger at the candidates: Ryan, Jackie Carter from the Greens, and Clive Crosby from Labor. Liberal candidate Amelia Hamer was a no-show.
With no security guard present and the room stunned, things quickly escalated.
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“This is not the forum for that!” one man shouted.
But the agitator – later identified by The Age as Matt Trihey, an associate of neo-Nazis who denies being a neo-Nazi himself – only roared louder. “This is something these people need to answer because the people are being put at risk,” he bellowed.
“Get out of here,” another man yelled. “Rack off, rack off.”
Trihey responded: “Address it, address it. Are you all too scared to address it?” The three candidates, along with MC Jennifer Bowen, sat in silence as several female organisers attempted to usher Trihey out, one pulling at his arm.
“Don’t touch me,” he screamed. “We are governed by parasites! It’s the biggest issue of our time and politicians are ignoring it.”
By now, Ryan had stood up with the microphone, clearly weighing whether and how to respond.
Trihey began ranting about rising rape rates. At that moment, a clearly distressed woman seated near the front, hands over her ears, let out a blood-curdling scream.
Still, Trihey kept ranting. Other attendees yelled, “f— off!” The woman screamed again. Others tried to calm her down.
A group of women – including Bowen and organisers from ABC Friends – were now actively trying to remove Trihey, but he pushed through them. The room erupted into a cacophony of yelling. Then, the woman who had screamed stormed to the back of the room
“Excuse me, please!” she said, politely nudging aside onlookers before raising her fist and attempting to strike Trihey in the face. Organisers quickly got between them, trying to calm the woman. Ryan moved to console her.
The meeting was interrupted, then devolved into chaos.Credit: Rachael Dexter
Ryan then asked Greens candidate Jackie Carter to call the police.
Trihey, grinning at the chaos, kept shouting.
“We are the working class, we are the working class,” he yelled.
Eventually, the trio began moving towards the exit. I attempted to ask them who they were and what organisation they represented, but Trihey’s cameraman turned his back. The woman inside screamed again.
Laughing, Trihey said: “I hope I haven’t spoiled your evening, guys. I just want answers!
“I want to go to bed at night and not worry about home invasions.”
An older woman gave Trihey a final shove out the door, to which he responded: “I’m very fragile … have a great day, guys!”
He continued yelling through the sliding doors until an organiser finally closed them.
Outside, I spoke with the trio. Trihey gave his name, but the other two refused. They denied being members of a political party, saying only that they were affiliated with Trihey’s outfit.
A few moments later, the police arrived.
Back inside, Bowen worked to calm the shaken room. One attendee led a brief relaxation exercise.
“If you need to wiggle in your chairs or put your arms in the air or take your feet on the ground, do whatever you need to, because we’re not here to talk about neo-Nazis right now,” she said.
The forum continued for another 40 minutes, including a debate about legislation on social media access for minors and the need for stronger misinformation regulation.
Afterwards, I caught up with Ryan. She said she had spoken to the woman who attempted to hit Trihey, but organisers told me the woman was still quite distressed by the incident.
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Ryan also appeared on ABC Radio Melbourne earlier today for a debrief with host Brett McLeod.
“I think the thing that really distressed some of the members of the audience is they started shouting about rape and women’s rape. It was all a bit incoherent, but it was threatening, and it was really unfortunate, because many members of the audience who are a little bit older [were] really taken aback by the events and clearly a bit threatened by them.”
Ryan, also bewildered by the scene, described the moment involving the older woman.
“She was a little lady, pretty frail, and he was not a small man, and I was really concerned about that, and their potential for that to escalate, where he did give her a push or something like that.”
She said the woman was “a bit horrified by the whole thing”, telling Ryan she’d been “really enjoying the event” and found it “a really worthwhile thing”.
“She was really, really angry at these gentlemen for disrupting as they did,” said Ryan.
I tried to contact the woman today, but organisers said she was too distressed to respond.
Despite the drama, Ryan said community groups should not be deterred from holding forums, something the organisers of last night’s event agreed with. Next time, they’ll book a security guard.
“We shouldn’t be silenced by right-wing nut bags,” said Ryan. “Essentially, we should continue to have these forums and enjoy the democracy that we’re so lucky to have.”
