WA Greens staffer’s Land Forces exclusion overturned after police minister’s clarification

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 security area 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 has taken Lane-Rose’s exclusion to the Supreme Court over the weekend, prompting WA Police to allow her to enter the security zone between 8am and 6pm on Tuesday.

She will remain on the excluded list and the ban will take effect again after 8pm on Tuesday.

Lane-Rose intends to pursue the ban in the Supreme Court, but that won’t take place until next week.

She said it was to give the exclusion list the scrutiny it deserved.

“My name is still on this list, so that is why I will be continuing to pursue my case in the Supreme Court of WA to challenge the decision that landed me on this list in the first place,” she said.

Lane-Rose said she intended to help her boss, Greens MP Sophie McNeill, create content outside the expo on Tuesday.

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.

A police spokeswoman would not address Lane-Rose’s matter directly but said where a complaint is received about a ban police would work with the complainant.

“Any such decision is made on a case-by-case basis and only where police are satisfied that attendance will not present a risk to the safety of others,” she said.

“The threshold for granting access is intentionally high, reflecting WA Police’s commitment to ensuring Land Forces remains a safe and secure environment for attendees, workers, exhibitors, protesters and the broader community.”

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.

The response included $11.5 million for a huge security operation to enforce a separate act of parliament giving police powers to ban people from entering a security zone around the convention centre.

Lane-Rose, 22, was fined $2000 and granted a spent conviction last year after being arrested alongside other Disrupt Burrup Hub activists as they attempted to chain themselves to a gate and throw paint on O’Neill’s western suburbs home in 2023.

The arrest was filmed by an ABC Four Corners crew, which was working on a story about climate activism, and Perth Magistrates Court heard the activists had been captured on CCTV scoping out the home 72 hours before their planned protest.

Lane-Rose, alongside co-accused Jesse Noakes, Gerard Mazza and Emil Davey, all pleaded guilty to attempted trespass and attempted unlawful damage.

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.

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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