PRIME Minister Tony Abbott won't be ambushed by protest groups during his launch of the Spirit of Anzac centenary experience at the Wodonga Sports and Leisure Centre on Friday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The North-East and Border Trades and Labour Council and March Australia are the latest groups to confirm they won't risk a public backlash by fronting Mr Abbott at the Spirit of Anzac national launch.
But secretary Chip Eling confirmed the council would be linking up with the Beechworth Refugee and Asylum Seeker Support group at the corner of High Street and Elgin Boulevard at the revised time of 11am on Friday.
All groups are still hopeful of coming face-to-face with Mr Abbott.
"We are not going to put ourselves in a position to get bad press for allegedly politicising something like that," Mr Eling said.
"We've said to our people we are categorically not going anywhere near that.
"But we still want to get a message across."
Retention of penalty rates are one of a host of union concerns.
Member for Farrer Sussan Ley, who will welcome Mr Abbott to Albury-Wodonga for the first time as Prime Minister, said the Spirit of Anzac event should be off-limits to protest groups.
"I would not expect any protesters to be at the Anzac centenary experience event," she said.
"I would see that as incredibly disrespectful, but otherwise Australia is a free country and a democracy where people can have their say.
"I am happy to see them have their say even though I personally don't agree with them."
Victorian senator and the minister assisting the Prime Minister for the Centenary of Anzac, Michael Ronaldson, is a late scratching from the national launch on Friday.
The next stop for the Spirit of Anzac exhibition is Launceston.
Meanwhile, Ms Ley launched one of three inland maritime heritage projects in her electorate at Albury's Noreuil Park on Wednesday.
Albury Council was granted $4240 to create a series of storyboards telling the story of
its unique maritime history.
The first storyboard has been located near the former Cumberoona jetty and explains the tale of naming an Albury park after a World War 1 battlefield in western Europe.
In 1919, alderman Alf Waugh asked men who had served in the Albury Battery in the Great War to come up with a name.
They chose the French village of Noreuil where they had fought the Germans two years earlier.
