A growing chorus is calling on the government to take more decisive action in the wake of an attack on an Indigenous event in Boorloo Perth.
A 31-year-old man is in police custody charged with multiple offenses after an object containing volatile liquids and shrapnel was thrown into the middle of an Invasion Day gathering on Monday.
The man’s identity cannot be revealed following a successful court application to keep it under wraps.
On Wednesday, a joint task force made up of WA Police, the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) confirmed the incident was also being investigated as a potential terrorist attack.
‘A 31-year-old man has been charged [and] remanded in custody and will subsequently appear in the Perth Magistrates Court on February 17,” they said in a statement.
“[The] The investigation is still ongoing and further charges have not been ruled out. There is no ongoing threat to public safety.”
Police have described the incident as a potential mass casualty event.
Megan Krakouer, director of the National Suicide Prevention and Trauma Recovery Project, said the incident has left the community shaken.
“I am still very frustrated, angry and hurt by the hatred and discrimination,” the Menang woman said.
“The fact that someone took it upon themselves to hurt a large crowd of people at a gathering that is sacred to First Nations people… Elders, youth, men and women [there] to protest in connection with Invasion Day.”
The government called for the threat to be taken more seriously
Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) social justice commissioner Katie Kiss said the incident had caused “deep fear and anxiety” in Indigenous communities.
“While the motive has yet to be established, there is no doubt that the targets of the attack were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their allies,” the Kaanju and Birri/Widi woman said in a statement.
We are not heard in the way we should be.
‘If the device had detonated, the consequences could have been catastrophic, and possibly as deadly as the Bondi terrorist attack.
“I call on the government and law enforcement agencies to treat this incident with the same urgency and seriousness.”
Ms Krakouer compared the relative silence from leaders across the political spectrum after the attack to the unanimous condemnation that followed the deadly attack on Bondi last year.
“This was a First Nations meeting. It’s almost like they don’t care about us,” she said.
“We weren’t listened to in the way we should have been… In my opinion, this was a hate crime.
“We have an uplift across the country of people who don’t like First Nations people. We belong to this country, we belong to this country.
“The mere fact that we can hold a meeting obstructed by someone who has taken it upon himself to cause danger is an absolute travesty.
“We are seeing hatred, discrimination and racism on the rise in this country, and this has been taken to a new level in the last decade.”
AHRC is still waiting for response to the anti-racism framework over a year later
Following the deadly terrorist attack on the Jewish community on Bondi Beach last year, the government convened a royal commission into anti-Semitism, passed an Anti-Semitism, Hate and Extremism Bill and said it would operate under the recommendations of anti-Semitism envoy Jillian Segal’s 2025 report.
A report from the AHRC, titled the National Anti-Racism Framework, was submitted to the federal government in November 2024, but the organization has yet to receive a response.
“We still haven’t heard whether they will endorse, amend or implement it,” said Racial Discrimination Commissioner Giridharan Sivaraman.
“And that framework is focused on First People, and it includes specific measures in terms of combating racism that focuses on First People.
“It is built on a foundation of truth-telling and building racial literacy in schools and in other parts of our lives.
“We don’t know if anything could have stopped the terrible attack in Boorloo Perth, but what we do know is that if you take the whole-of-government, whole-of-society approach to tackling racism, that is really the only way to try to eliminate it from our systems, our institutions and from our streets.”
On Tuesday, the Prime Minister said authorities should throw the book at the alleged perpetrator.
“This was an incident that is quite shocking and he has been charged with two serious offenses and I look forward to him being prosecuted to the full force of the law,” he said.
However, independent senator Lidia Thorpe has been critical of Anthony Albanese for not taking stronger action.
“[The prime minister] We must show leadership… to condemn what has happened and stand with our people and call it out for what it is, and that is a terror attack against the First Peoples in this country,” she told NITV.
Following the Bondi massacre, the Prime Minister faced criticism from some quarters that warnings of such an attack had been ignored.
Speaking at a memorial service for the 15 people killed in Australia’s worst-ever terror attack, Albanese said he “deeply regrets” that the attack was not prevented.
Senator Thorpe says similar warnings have been made by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, especially after the neo-Nazi attack on Camp Sovereignty in Melbourne last year.
“We are tired of these words coming especially from the Prime Minister’s mouth, smoothing over these attacks on our people,” she said.
“We saw what happened at Camp Sovereignty. He must do more now, he has shown leadership for other communities, he must show leadership for us.
“We have always been swept under the carpet, the atrocities and violence against us have always been minimized by authorities and governments.”
Indigenous Australian Minister Malarndirri McCarthy said on Thursday the government had acted decisively with its hate speech legislation.
“Unfortunately, we were not supported in a bipartisan way to get those laws through,” she told the ABC.
‘We know that we have to work very seriously in this country to maintain social cohesion, and it doesn’t help when people say or do things online that really affect that.
“As a government, we will continue to work for the safety of all Australians.”
Ms McCarthy said she had spoken to the WA Government and the families of those at the meeting on Monday.
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