By Andrea Mayes and Callum Liddelow, ABC
The homemade bomb was hurled into the crowd which had gathered to protest Invasion Day. Photo: ABC/Cason Ho
The attempted bombing of an Invasion Day rally crowd in Perth was a terrorist act, authorities have declared.
A 31-year-old man was last week charged with throwing what police described as a homemade "fragment bomb", filled with ball bearings and screws, into the crowd which had gathered in central Perth.
WA Premier Roger Cook today confirmed the man has also been charged with engaging in a terrorist act.
He said it could have become a "mass casualty event", had the bomb exploded.
"This charge... alleges the attack on Aboriginal people and other peaceful protesters was motivated by hateful, racist ideology," he said.
The premier said it was the first time such charges had been laid in WA.
He said people had a right to protest peacefully, and the incident had caused widespread anxiety.
"I know this event has impacted people Australia-wide and it is deeply felt by our Indigenous communities," he said.
"I know that there is anger. We have every right to be angry.
"Any attack on our First Nations people is an attack on all of us."
The man's identity has been suppressed by WA's courts because of concerns for his safety.
Accused had access to 'pro-white' material
Police Commissioner Col Blanch alleged the incident "was a nationalist and racially motivated, attack … targeting members of the Aboriginal community, First Nations people."
He said police believed the bomb "had a fuse that was lit", and "we should all be thankful that we don't have deceased or seriously injured people in Western Australia today" as a result.
The commissioner said authorities, including intelligence agencies, "had no intelligence … that this attack was being prepared."
He said there was evidence the man charged was self-radicalised and had access to "pro-white, male pro-white material online", and "that ideology is prevalent across his access to the internet."
It had taken some time for police to determine the incident reached the threshold of a terror event.
"All of us in this room, all of us in our community, would have seen a bomb being thrown into a crowd on Australia Day at an Invasion Day rally as an act of terror," he said.
"But to charge someone with a terrorism offence, we need to prove the motivation and the ideology of that person."
Call for calm
Federal Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy called for calm and community cohesion in the wake of the upgraded charges.
Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy. Photo: ABC News / Matt Roberts
"I know that the First Nations community here in Perth and right across Australia are indeed hurting," she said.
"They're feeling scared, they feel very angry."
"What's happened these past couple of months has certainly highlighted the fact that all of us, wherever we are in this country, need to be vigilant and we need to deliberately work towards a social, cohesive community."
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Katie Kiss acknowledged it was the first charge in the country where Aboriginal people were the alleged target.
"It's only by the grace of God and by the blessing of our ancestors, that that thing did not go off," she said.
"I think we've been let down by systems and by processes and by people who are perpetuating hate and racism in our community."
ASIO involved quickly
Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Krissy Barrett said police would allege the man "removed a homemade improvised explosive device from his bag and threw it at a rally held in support of First Nations people in Perth's CBD."
She said the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), the AFP and WA's joint counter intelligence team (JCTT) had become involved 36 minutes after the device was thrown into the crowd.
An investigation - Operation Operation Dumfries - was launched the next day.
Commissioner Barrett said the team "has worked around the clock to determine whether he acted alone" and deemed there was no ongoing risk to the community.
She said the AFP's new national security investigations team was in the process of setting up operations in WA, and would target "those who endanger our social cohesion by promoting hate and violence."
"There are individuals and current and emerging groups across Australia, including in the west, which are eroding the country's social fabric by advocating hatred, fear, and humiliation that is towards violence, and I am here to put these groups and individuals on notice," she said.
"Today is an update as much as it is a warning. The proof is that an individual is facing life behind bars because of their alleged actions."
Speaking in federal parliament, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the incident was "alleged terrorism driven by racism and hatred" and could have resulted in "death, injury, trauma beyond imagining".
- ABC
