‘Sluggish, inert’: Australia’s leaders slammed for response to Invasion Day rally terror attack

Aboriginal rights leader Pat Anderson has accused Australia’s political leaders of falling silent in the face of racism after an alleged terrorist attack on an Invasion Day rally in Perth, saying the response had left Indigenous communities frightened and exposed.

“I have waited for yesterday’s decision to make this statement,” Anderson said in a statement on Friday. “Like many First Nations peoples, I have watched the events in Perth with a heavy heart.”

“The now alleged terrorist act combined with the sluggish, inert response of elected leaders is a stark reminder of how we as Aboriginal people are viewed and treated in this country,” she said.

“The message that hurt me most was that of silence. The silence was overwhelming.”

Her comments followed the upgrading of charges against a 31-year-old man, now accused of engaging in a terrorist act which carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, after he allegedly threw an explosive device into a crowd of Indigenous people and supporters.

Thousands of people were evacuated from Forrest Place in Perth’s city centre on January 26 after police located an object containing volatile chemicals, nails and metal ball bearings. Police allege the device, which did not detonate despite a fuse being lit, was thrown from a walkway above a crowd of about 2500 people attending the Invasion Day rally.

WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch said the accused man, who remains in custody and whose name has been suppressed by the courts because of fears for his safety, was self-radicalised, acted alone and had accessed bomb-making instructions and extremist material online.

“The attack on Aboriginal people and other peaceful protesters was motivated by hateful, racist ideology,” Blanch said.

But Anderson, the co-chair of the Uluru Dialogue, said the political silence mirrored the experience of the 2023 Voice referendum campaign.

“While politicians say there is no room for racism in Australia, they fell silent in the 2023 Voice Referendum as race hate and hate speech bombarded our communities … and they have fallen silent again,” she said.

An Alyawarre woman, Anderson said families had contacted community leaders to say they were keeping children home from school because it felt unsafe.

“No leader stood up and condemned that,” Anderson, a longtime advocate dedicated to advancing self-determination and the health and education of Australia’s First Nations people, said.

“Race hate shakes you to your core and diminishes your sense of safety and belonging, leaving you feeling exposed, exhausted, and abandoned.”

She said Indigenous Australians live in a reality knowing that it had “never been our government’s priority to keep us safe”.

“We know this from compulsory segregation or ‘protection’, stolen generations and child removals, subjugation and today youth detention and incarceration.

“What happened in Perth has stirred this history up.”

Authorities have defended the nine-day delay in formally declaring the incident a terrorist act, after criticism from Indigenous groups who accused police and governments of applying a double standard.

Blanch said investigators needed time to gather evidence to legally establish terrorist motivation and ideology, and rejected suggestions that police communication had been inadequate.

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett said a significant amount of investigative work was required to meet the legal threshold for a terrorism charge.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned the alleged attack after the charge upgrade, telling federal parliament it was driven by racism and hatred.

“The device did not detonate, but that does not change the fact that this attack was real and the intended consequences would have indeed been horrific,” he said.

Speaking on ABC radio on Friday, Indigenous Affairs Minister Malarndirri McCarthy said the incident “certainly could have received far more attention in terms of media coverage and expression from other political leaders from other political parties”, but she said it was “actually not about a blame game anymore”.

McCarthy said her focus was to ensure First Nations families feel supported.

“I am conscious that there are many views across the country, but my focus is to actually keep working with the families and those who are present at the rally, and how we can get through these next couple of months,” she said. “There’s still a way to go.”

The accused man is due to return to court on February 17.

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