WA police have charged a 31-year-old man with a terrorism offence over the alleged attempted bombing of an Invasion Day rally in Perth.
Police allege the man threw a homemade improvised explosive device into a crowd at an Invasion Day protest in Perth’s Forrest Place on 26 January.
More than 2,500 people, predominantly First Nations Australians, were attending the rally at the time of the alleged attack.
The charges were announced at a joint press conference involving WA premier Roger Cook, police minister Reece Whitby, WA police commissioner Col Blanch, Australian Federal Police commissioner Krissy Barrett, and federal minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy.
Cook said the terrorism charge alleges the attack on Aboriginal people and other peaceful protesters was motivated by hateful, racist ideology, marking the first time such a charge has been laid in Western Australia.
Police said the accused, from the Perth suburb of Warwick, has also been charged with committing an unlawful act with intent to harm and with making or possessing explosives under suspicious circumstances.
He has been remanded in custody.
Barrett said authorities do not believe there is any residual risk to the community following the alleged attack.
She said the AFP and ASIO were engaged within minutes of the incident, with the WA Joint Counter Terrorism Team escalating the investigation the following day using elevated Commonwealth powers.
