Climate activists banned from entering police ‘fort’ around Perth defence expo

Activists have slammed the Cook government for “draconian” police powers banning people from going near the Land Forces Expo that will be held at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre next week.

The Greens and WA Anti-War Collective said six people they knew of had received police letters this week banning them from entering the expo security zone that will be in place around the centre from Thursday.

The powers, which passed WA parliament last month, establish the security zone covering the convention centre and Elizabeth Quay busport for a period of 10 days around the event.

In that zone, police are able to ban people, stop and search anyone they choose, and remove face coverings.

There is also a long list of banned items that police can confiscate, including speakers and microphones, dangerous animals, insects (including bees), and items that could be used as weapons including flares and bottles.

WA Police Commander Darren Sivright, a senior officer in charge of the operation, described the security zone as a “fort”.

Land Forces is Australia’s biggest defence expo, with major international weapons manufactures set to attend and about 10,000 overseas and interstate visitors predicted to stream through its doors between October 6 and 8.

Protests at the 2024 event in Victoria led to ugly clashes between protesters and police prompting the Cook Government to budget $11.5 million for beefed up security.

Climate activist Will Shanahan, 18, posted the police ban they had received to social media on Wednesday night.

Shanahan is member of climate activist groups Rising Tide and Disrupt Burrup Hub, and was fined for $800 for disrupting a Chamber of Minerals and Energy WA event featuring Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Perth in April.

In a video posted to Instagram on Wednesday, Shanahan, who lives in Newcastle, described the laws as “draconian”.

“To think that 20,000 children have been killed in Gaza, 70,000 innocent people, and that I can’t peacefully protest an arms convention, I can’t stand outside a weapons convention and hold a placard peacefully without being arrested and imprisoned by this government is abhorrent,” they said.

“It is the most disgusting evil thing imaginable.”

Shanahan was not intending to fly to Perth for the event, but now plans to travel west since receiving the letter.

Protesters have been designated a site to the east of the facility, but organisers have likened it to a “pen” and instead opted for a March through the city from Yagan Square to Elizabeth Quay on the first day of the expo on Tuesday.

Police Minister Reece Whitby would not respond directly to Shanahan’s criticisms but defended the police’s banned list methodology.

“Those individuals can do as they please, but know this: the bar is very high to be an excluded person, and for very good reason,” he said.

“We don’t want to see violence. We don’t want to see people at risk, and that is the basis on which people are being excluded.”

Asked about how comfortable he was supporting an event showcasing weapons manufacturers, Whitby said it was “about the security of our country and the region”.

“This event is about significant strategic importance to the state and our security in terms of defence,” he said.

“I understand people are opposed to seeing munitions and military equipment being on show, and they have every right to protest that.”

Police will enforce their beefed up laws using facial recognition cameras and CCTV from inside the convention centre and right around the CBD in multiple locations, including the state operations command centre.

Sivright declined to detail the thresholds that needed to be met for one to be banned from the security zone, but said police were trying to strike a balance between the safety of attendees and the right to protest.

“We’ve set the threshold particularly high, so those that have been excluded have earned it through previous suboptimal behaviour, and if there’s any similar behaviour during the event, they will join the excluded persons list,” he said.

Greens MLC Sophie McNeill has been a staunch critic of the powers and will attend both the protest and the event itself.

McNeill has participated in several protests since becoming an MP, including two separate rallies outside the US Consulate.

Her access to Land Forces was recently approved, but she said she would love to be banned.

“I’d love a letter … that’d be great. I doubt it because I think [the government] wouldn’t want the attention that gave,” she said.

McNeill said she was attending the conference because of the taxpayers’ money being spent to protect it.

“I want to go and show people what their money is being spent for,” she said.

“I want to show them the kind of companies that are inside there, the kind of companies that are having a red carpet rolled out to them.”

Protest organisers, the WA Anti-War Collective, opted for the march because the protest zone approved by the WA government was out of the way of the actual event.

“The police did offer us the possibility of marching into a part of the the the event area, but … it’s quite an obscure location,” WA Anti-War Collective organiser Sam Wainwright said.

“In the second, we would be inviting people into a space where, at law, they have less civil liberties than otherwise would be the case, and we just don’t think that’s acceptable.”