WA Greens staffer’s Land Forces ban overturned after police backflip
A WA Greens staffer and activist who was fined over a planned protest at the home of former Woodside chief executive Meg O’Neill has had a ban on entering the Land Forces Expo overturned after threatening legal action.
Matilda Lane-Rose was one of several people, including Rising Tide and Disrupt Burrup Hub activist Will Shanahan, who were placed on an exclusion list by WA Police barring them from entering the area around the Perth Exhibition and Convention Centre where the defence expo is being held this week.
The Human Rights Law Centre and SCALES Community Legal Centre threatened to take Lane-Rose’s exclusion to the Supreme Court over the weekend, prompting WA Police to overturn her ban, and raising questions about the thresholds used by police to determine the exclusion list.
On Friday, WA Police Minister Reece Whitby said the bar had been set “very high to be an excluded person, and for very good reason”.
“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,” he said.
WA Police were approached for comment.
Land Forces is Australia’s biggest defence expo, with senior members of the nation’s defence force and academia attending alongside major international weapons manufacturers.
About 10,000 overseas and interstate visitors are predicted to stream through the expo’s doors between October 6 and 8. WA Premier Roger Cook said the 2024 Victorian event injected about $100 million into the local economy, and predicted a similar windfall for the western capital.
However, the Cook government has gone to extraordinary lengths to avoid the ugly scenes that occurred outside the 2024 Melbourne expo, where protesters clashed with police.
Lane-Rose now works as a staffer for the WA Greens and is a law student.
Penalties for breaching the Land Forces bans could reach three years in jail and more than $30,000 in fines.
On Monday morning, Cook said he wasn’t aware of anyone being removed from the exclusion list but was confident the police bans would stand up to any scrutiny.
“Ultimately, it’s the responsibility of the police to allow the Land Forces conference to go ahead, and we want them to do the best they can,” he said.
“We want people to protest if that’s what they consider is important. This is democracy; they have the right to protest. It’s just important they do it respectfully and safely.”
The WA Anti-War Collective will protest the event on Tuesday with a march through the city from Yagan Square to Elizabeth Quay.
WA Greens MLC Sophie McNeill previously said people like Lane-Rose did not meet the threshold of posing a serious threat to the community.
McNeill has participated in several protests since becoming an MP, including two separate rallies outside the US Consulate.
She was granted permission to enter the event.
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