Gay refugee advocates threatened with exclusion from Mardi Gras over Shorten protest

A Mardi Gras organiser told a gay refugee advocacy group that its members would be banned from the parade if they booed Bill Shorten following a protest at a media conference he gave just before the event on Saturday.

The terse exchange between float co-ordinator Anthony Russell and Ed McMahon, of the No Pride in Detention group, came after members of the pro-asylum group shouted "we're here, we're queer, refugees are welcome here" at the Opposition Leader, who was flanked by shadow Foreign Minister Tanya Plibersek.

The brief demonstration incensed Mr Russell, who was filmed telling Mr McMahon what would happen if the group didn't leave those particular politics at the door.

"If I bring Bill Shorten out here now and one of you people say something to him, you are not in the f---ing parade. Do you understand that?" Mr Russell, who was being filmed by another member of No Pride, said.

"So have a chat to your people, you talk to your people right now, OK. You’ve got one more chance. If you don’t, if you can’t act like a normal human being – all in the parade together – then you’re out."

One of No Pride's float organisers was outraged by the command and accused the organisers of trying to shield Mr Shorten from an uncomfortable situation.

"The marshals were made to hold us back while a couple of floats which came from further along Oxford Street went ahead of us," she told The Guardian.

"Obviously they wanted to avoid the embarrassment of the hypocrisy of Bill Shorten and the Labor party's position on offshore processing.

"The origins of Mardi Gras were a protest for gay rights and it’s long been a venue for that," Ms Thomas added.

Some 300,000 people attended this year's celebration, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull among them.