Nine-Day Delay in Terror Classification Reveals Police Failures Toward Indigenous Communities

Western Australian police waited nine days to classify a homemade bomb—packed with ball bearings and screws—thrown at an Indigenous Invasion Day rally on January 26 as terrorism. The device landed near roughly 2,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander attendees. Police had received advance warnings but failed to brief organisers. A federal parliamentary inquiry is now examining this delay as evidence of systemic racism and institutional gaps in protecting First Nations communities.