The exposed powerlessness of authorities to adequately protect Prime Minister Anthony Albanese from grandstanding extremists marks a disturbing new element in protests where egos fuse with politics to threaten the security of politicians.

Albanese was confronted in his supposed secret overnight campaign stop, Melbourne’s Grand Hyatt Hotel, by protesters on Tuesday. Members of the alt-right group Melbourne Freedom Rally shouted questions about housing and immigration while being filmed by a far-right bodyguard, Daniel Jones, who immediately posted the footage online and bragged about breaching the prime minister’s security perimeter with no questions asked.

The Australian Federal Police’s chief Reece Kershaw issued a warning just before the election was called that threats against politicians have doubled in the past two years, prompting the agency to increase protection for MPs and their staff during the campaign. As if on cue, the first full day of campaigning last month saw gatecrashers disrupting events being held by Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.

Heightened security concerns have meant Albanese and Dutton’s movements have been kept under wraps this campaign. Last week, it was revealed that Dutton was the target of an alleged terrorist plot, and a 16-year-old boy was facing a court accused of buying bomb-making ingredients and testing explosives intending to launch an attack. On Sunday masked neo-Nazis rallied outside opposition home affairs spokesperson Senator James Paterson’s Melbourne office, chanting racist slogans and declaring both Labor and the Liberals were traitors to the white race and were creating a “third world Australia”.

The Grand Hyatt pair belonged to Melbourne Freedom Rally, an organisation that led massive protests through the COVID-19 pandemic, promoted baseless conspiracy theories about doctors fraudulently claiming that people have died of COVID to exaggerate the scale of the pandemic, and campaigned for an end to pandemic measures. Its key organisers had links to the far right.

Their colleague, Daniel Jones, is a self-styled bodyguard to far-right figure Avi Yemini, whose self-defence outfit has been called vigilantes by Victoria Police. Jones has posted images online of himself toting various firearms, including a rocket launcher, and preferred to crow about evading authorities.

Australians value our freedoms, and protests help fortify our democracy by permitting grassroots views to be heard. They can take various forms, such as the rallies against the Vietnam War, and the Aboriginal Tent Embassy on the lawns of Parliament House, and sometimes change the course of events and governments.

But the rights to protest and assembly comes with responsibilities. They include not impinging on other people’s rights and freedoms. Authorities can restrict protests if they pose a realistic threat to public safety, public health or national security.

Australia’s implied freedom of expression is not unfettered, and in a civil society there are limits to how we may express our opinions. No matter what their view, protesters must continue to resist violent and threatening behaviour. The men who invaded Albanese’s space preferred to go for the “gotcha moment”, an irresponsible and abhorrent boast that belies the danger it contains.

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