Authorities have formally declared the alleged attempted bombing at a Boorloo/Perth Invasion Day rally a terrorist act, after a 31-year-old man was hit with an upgraded charge. The man’s identity remains suppressed by the WA courts.
On 26 January, about 2,500 people had gathered in Forrest Place when a device about the size of a takeaway coffee cup was allegedly thrown from a balcony towards the main stage, where Elders were speaking.
Police allege it was a home-made “fragment bomb” filled with flammable liquid, screws and ball bearings, and say people could have been killed or seriously injured if it had exploded.
Premier Roger Cook confirmed the man has now been charged with engaging in a terrorist act, saying the charge “alleges the attack on Aboriginal people and other peaceful protesters was motivated by hateful, racist ideology” and that it could have become a “mass casualty event”.
It took state and federal police nine days to establish the grounds for a terrorism charge.
“The people in the crowd that day were peacefully protesting, as is their right as Australians,” Cook said at the announcement today.
Cook said it was the first time terrorism charges of this kind had been laid in WA, adding: “I know this event has impacted people Australia-wide and it is deeply felt by our Indigenous communities… Any attack on our First Nations people is an attack on all of us.”
Race Discrimination Commissioner Giridharan Sivaraman told PEDESTRIAN.TV that Aboriginal community members are “shocked, horrified, scared and very concerned”.
The accused remains in custody ahead of his next court appearance in February, and the terrorism charge will now proceed through the WA court system alongside the original explosives and intent-to-harm charges.
Authorities say there is no ongoing threat to public safety, but community leaders are calling for sustained action on racism and for protesters’ safety to be treated as a priority at future events.
Boorloo Invasion Day rally organiser Fabian Yarran said: “What we are seeing is not an isolated issue; these threats impact many communities, and any serious inquiry must reflect that reality.”
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