The first person in Western Australia to be charged with a terrorism offence will appear in Perth Magistrate's Court Tuesday after being accused of throwing a bomb into a crowd at the Boorloo/Perth Invasion Day rally.
WA Police allege Liam Alexander Hall, 32, engaged in an alleged act of terrorism after throwing a "fragment bomb" filled with ball bearings and screws into a crowd of thousands in Perth's CBD on January 26.
Prosecutors will allege it "was a nationalist and racially motivated, attack ... targeting members of the Aboriginal community, First Nations people".
His scheduled appearance follows comments from Federal Home Affairs minister Tony Burke that only 'luck' prevented people from being killed in the alleged failed bomb attack.
"The person who threw the pipe bomb into the middle of a crowd of First Nations protesters believed ... there was a reasonable expectation it would have gone off, [with] a number of people killed," Mr Burke said.
"The fact it didn't happen is not through any plan. We just got lucky."
The maximum penalty for committing a terrorism act is life imprisonment, while Hall could face 20 years and 14 years in prison respectively on the State charges of intention to do harm, and possessing explosives under suspicious circumstances.
During a keynote address to the National Security College's Securing our Future conference, Mr Burke warned against "ignorant" arguments that capping immigration would help reduce the threat of extremism or terrorism.
He said online radicalisation was now one of the most pressing dangers to the nation and dismissed a cap on immigration, saying recent terrorist plots were carried out by Australian-born individuals and this emphasised a need to address domestic radicalisation.
"Because [other forms of extremism] haven't been considered a part of Australia's conversation about terrorism, I can sort of understand why people didn't think that was something to report to a national security hotline," he told the conference.
Mr Burke noted the four people currently in prison for allegedly planning or committing recent terrorist incidents - the Christchurch massacre, the Bondi massacre, the attempted Australia Day bombing in Perth and an alleged white supremacist plot targeting mosques and police headquarters in Perth - were all born in Australia.
Hall's appearance in Perth Magistrate's Court Monday comes after the defendant was due to appear for the first mention of the Commonwealth terrorism charge and second mention of the State charges on February 17, but failed to present.
Prior to the Commonwealth terrorism charge on February 4, Hall's identity was suppressed after his first court hearing on January 27, after a defence lawyer raised concerns about his safety in prison.
Magistrate Lynnette Dias said during his second hearing last month there was not sufficient evidence to depart from the usual practice of naming an accused person.
"Given the serious nature of these charges and fundamental principles relating to open justice, I do not consider that issues relating to the accused's interests and his personal circumstances are such as to justify displacing the usual practice of naming accused's persons," she said.
"It's not in the interests of justice to make a suppression order."
