{"id":217,"date":"2026-04-28T14:19:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T14:19:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/217\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T14:19:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T14:19:17","slug":"man-accused-of-booing-at-anzac-day-dawn-service-welcome-to-country-in-sydney-identified","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/217\/","title":{"rendered":"Man accused of booing at Anzac Day dawn service Welcome to Country in Sydney identified"},"content":{"rendered":"

The man who is accused of booing<\/a> during the Welcome to Country at the Anzac Day dawn service in Sydney\u2019s Martin Place<\/a> has been tracked down and he is making no apologies.<\/p>\n

Eli Toby, 24, was confronted by 7NEWS at his parents\u2019 home near Penrith three days after the remembrance service that triggered widespread debate about Welcome to Country acknowledgments.<\/p>\n

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Anzac Day heckler identified and unrepentant<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n

Police will allege the young man and a band of other dawn service spoilers were behind 66 seconds of booing.<\/p>\n

When asked if he had any apology to make to the diggers and their families, Toby responded: \u201cHow\u2019d you find me?\u201d<\/p>\n

Toby lives at home with mum and dad and when asked if his parents know about the incident, he responded: \u201cI haven\u2019t told them yet. I\u2019d rather you guys not tell them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"EliEli Toby is accused of booing at the Martin Place dawn service. Credit: 7NEWS<\/p>\n

But the secret\u2019s out, and it\u2019s not the first time Toby has been in the spotlight. He was also present at last year\u2019s neo-Nazi rally outside Parliament House.<\/p>\n

When questioned about the Welcome to Country, Toby claimed \u201cit\u2019s not right\u201d because \u201cit\u2019s designed to humiliate the memory of white Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked whether the dawn service was the right forum for his protest, he admitted: \u201cI haven\u2019t really given it much thought to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n

The disruption has triggered widespread disgust across the community, with witnesses describing their horror at the incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was appalled,\u201d one person said, while another admitted: \u201cIt actually made me cry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PolicePolice escorted the group from the dawn service. Credit: 7NEWS<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s shout down has also triggered broader debate, with the RSL now reviewing the entire Welcome to Country concept.<\/p>\n

\u201cWelcome to country has been overdone and I think that is unfortunate,\u201d federal opposition leader Angus Taylor said.<\/a><\/p>\n

But there\u2019s no retreat from Toby, who remains defiant about his actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sorry for it. I should be able to say what I like,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He is due to appear in court in June.<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The man who is accused of booing during the Welcome to Country at the Anzac Day dawn service…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[461,152,462,247],"class_list":["post-217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sydney","tag-anzac","tag-news","tag-nsw-news","tag-sydney"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}