ABOUT 30 protesters gathered outside Parliament House this week to condemn proposed laws giving police sweeping new powers during a weapons expo in Perth next month.

The Tuesday protest in West Perth was organised by the WA Anti War Collective and Right To Protest WA as the Land Forces Event (Special Powers) Bill 2026 returned to Parliament.

The protesters say the legislation would create an exclusion zone around the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre, allow authorities to create an “excluded persons” list and give police additional powers including searches and checkpoints.

•Protestor on the steps of Parliament earlier this week. Photo courtesy Right 2 Protest WA

WA Anti War Collective spokesperson Sam Wainwright said the relatively small turnout was partly because the protest had been organised at short notice.

“We literally built it with a couple of days’ notice,” he said.

He said the legislation had largely gone under the radar, with most people unaware of the proposed powers.

Mr Wainwright said the Human Rights Law Centre had raised concerns that the legislation was unconstitutional and argued existing police powers were sufficient to deal with disorder.

“Police already have powers to deal with things like obstruction, disorderly conduct, damage to property and that kind of thing,” he said.

“Why on earth are special powers needed?”

He said the proposed restrictions also set a dangerous precedent by limiting civil liberties within a defined area of Perth for the duration of the October 5-8 weapons expo.

• Protestors say one of the firms attending the weapons expo manufactured parts used in the drone which killed Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom and her colleagues in Gaza. Photo courtesy Right 2 Protest WA

Precedent

“It sets a terrible precedent to effectively strip away people’s civil liberties in a defined area in the Perth CBD for the duration of a conference,” he said.

The bill is intended to provide security for Land Forces 2026, which organisers describe as a defence industry event featuring major international weapons companies.

But Mr Wainwright said the focus on potential violence from protesters ignored what he described as the far greater consequences of the military industry represented at the event.

“It’s faintly ludicrous to be hyping up the notion of protester violence in the context of what is a weapons fair,” he said.

He pointed to companies exhibiting at the event that he said had supplied weapons or military technology to countries involved in conflicts and alleged human rights abuses.

“Let’s be very clear. There are weapons companies there that have supplied weapons to Saudi Arabia, including Australian companies,” he said.

He also questioned why people accused of serious international crimes could attend an Australian weapons expo while protesters faced additional restrictions.

“So, I mean, it’s this bizarre sort of fixation on whether a protester breaks the law, with no worries about the industrial-scale law-breaking of some of the attendees,” he said.

“That is the problem.”

The protest movement has also criticised the proposed cost of securing the event, with the collective saying the bill would shield the military industry from protesters at a cost of $11.5 million to WA taxpayers.

Mr Wainwright said he believed money spent on security could also leave a longer-term legacy.

He said the Cook government had admitted during Parliament question time that some of the spending would be used to purchase equipment that would remain after Land Forces 2026.

“If that’s what the government wants to do, they should be honest about that and put it in the budget as a normal part of the democratic debate,” he said.

A larger protest against Land Forces is planned for October 6, beginning in the Perth CBD and marching down William Street.

Mr Wainwright said police had offered them an “obscure” car park at the north-western end of the security zone.

“For us, we just felt like, well, you’re almost turning us into one of the exhibitions — like a freak show in the corner.”

Wainwright said the campaign was intended to go beyond Land Forces and challenge what he saw as the growing militarisation of Australian society.

“For us, we see this as being something of a launch pad for a campaign against the social licence for the militarisation of Australian society, because that is what is happening, basically,” he said.

by STEVE GRANT