The man charged over an alleged terrorism act at Perth's Invasion Day rally on January 26 has been named as Liam Alexander Hall, following legal proceedings to lift a suppression order that had kept his identity from the public record, the ABC has reported.
Hall faces charges relating to an alleged act of terrorism committed at or near the rally, which was held in Perth as part of national commemorations and protests marking the contested meaning of January 26 — the date that serves simultaneously as Australia's national day and, for many First Nations Australians, as a day of mourning marking British colonisation.
The suppression order had prevented media from naming Hall since his initial charging. The order was lifted after a court application, allowing the ABC and other outlets to report his identity on Monday.
Details of the alleged act itself remain subject to ongoing legal proceedings, and the specific nature of what Hall is alleged to have done at or near the rally has not yet been fully aired in open court. He has not yet entered a plea.
The case sits at a highly sensitive intersection of Australian law, politics, and history. The application of terrorism charges in the context of a protest marking Indigenous dispossession raises immediate questions from civil liberties advocates about the scope and use of counter-terrorism law.
Australia's terrorism laws, expanded substantially in the post-2001 period, define a terrorist act as an action done with the intention of advancing a political, religious, or ideological cause through coercion or intimidation. Civil liberties organisations have long raised concerns about the breadth of those definitions and their potential application to political protest contexts.
Invasion Day rallies — also called Survival Day rallies in some communities — have been held annually for decades and represent one of the longest-running forms of Indigenous political protest in the country. Tens of thousands of people participate across Australia each year in events that range from solemn mourning ceremonies to active political demonstrations calling for a change to the date or the recognition of a treaty.
Noongar elder and activist Corun Dann told community media that the charging of an individual under terrorism laws at an Invasion Day event "sends a chilling message" to those exercising their democratic right to protest on January 26. "We need to know exactly what this person is alleged to have done," he said.
The Western Australian government and WA Police have not provided detailed public comment on the nature of the alleged act beyond confirming the charges. The case is proceeding in the Western Australian courts.
A terrorism charge is serious. An Invasion Day rally is politically and culturally significant. The intersection of the two requires the court process to run its course before conclusions are drawn — but the questions the case raises about the use of counter-terrorism law in the context of Indigenous political protest are legitimate and warrant public scrutiny.
