A 31-year-old individual has been charged with endangering life, health, or safety by unlawful actions and with creating or possessing explosives under dubious circumstances. This follows an incident where the accused allegedly hurled a device into a gathering of 2,500 people at Forrest Place on Monday.

Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe has raised concerns over the lack of information from the police regarding the suspect’s motives or ideological stance.

“At first glance, this seems like a targeted, racist terrorist attack against First Peoples during our Day of Mourning. This potential must be taken with the utmost seriousness, rather than ignored or trivialized,” she stated.

Jess Beckerling, co-spokesperson for First Nations justice with the Greens, criticized the authorities for using what she termed “soft language and a low-level charge” in response to the incident.

John Coyne, director of the national security program at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, clarified that law enforcement must demonstrate “beyond a reasonable doubt” that the intent was to commit an act of terror and that the device was meant to explode before making such a declaration.

“Some people will say it’s self-evident,” he said.

“The police and the prosecutors will need to be able to go into a courtroom and prove beyond reasonable doubt that their motivation was to create terror and fear based on an ideology.

“That takes a while to gather that sort of information.”

Coyne said there was an air of caution to declare an incident terrorism and pointed to the bombs found inside a caravan in Dural, Sydney, in January last year.

The incident was declared terrorism, but police later found the caravan never intended to detonate and was created to sow fear. 

“We want to make sure that the decision is made with as much information as possible. We don’t want to potentially derail future prosecutions. We don’t want to have undue worry in the community,” Coyne said.

Police alleged the “rudimentary” bomb thrown in Perth contained ball bearings and screws, which were wrapped around a liquid in a glass container.

Officers arrested the man, who allegedly indicated the device may contain explosives.

It failed to detonate, but the crowd was evacuated. No one was injured.

The 31-year-old has been remanded in custody and will face the Perth Magistrates Court on February 17.

The accused’s identity has been suppressed by the court due to concerns for his safety.

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