Perth Activist Takes Protest Ban to Court

A Perth climate activist aged 22 has forced Western Australia police to back down on a protest ban — at least partly — after threatening to take the state to court. Matilda Lane-Rose, a staffer for Greens MP Sophie McNeill, had been placed on a police exclusion list barring her from a security zone around the Land Forces defence expo, which runs from Tuesday, October 6, through Thursday, October 8, 2026. After her lawyers lodged a Supreme Court challenge on Friday, police granted her a reprieve so she can enter the zone on Tuesday with her boss. Lane-Rose says she will keep the case running anyway.

Lane-Rose, 22, told reporters that police called her on Thursday to say she was on the exclusion list, even though she had no plans to attend the protest against the expo, according to earlier reporting on Friday's media conference. About a dozen people were placed on the list, including Will Shanahan, 18, an activist with Rising Tide and Disrupt Burrup Hub. Anyone who defies an exclusion order can face a fine of up to 36,000 Australian dollars and up to three years in prison, according to the ABC's reporting on the legislation.

How the expo protest ban works

The protest ban sits inside a set of extraordinary temporary powers granted to WA Police by the Western Australia parliament last month. Inside the security zone, which stretches from the Elizabeth Quay bus port to the Perth convention centre, officers can stop and search people, set up checkpoints, cordons and roadblocks, and issue lawful directions for ten days. Officers can also seize prohibited items deemed a safety risk, and the powers stay in force until October 10, 2026, to cover the expo's setup and pack-down, according to AAP.

Police Minister Reece Whitby has defended the protest ban. He said the bar had been set "very high" for exclusion and that police were making decisions on a case-by-case basis, according to The Age. He also said the measures were about keeping people safe while respecting the right to peaceful protest. Premier Roger Cook said police were working with exhibitors and protest groups alike so the event could go ahead and people could protest peacefully, according to AAP.

The court fight against the protest ban

Lane-Rose's legal team argues that police did not properly apply the legal criteria when they put her on the list and did not give her procedural fairness before the notice was issued. "We will be asking the court to consider whether this broad incursion into our clients' rights was lawful and proper in the circumstances," lawyer Anna Copeland told reporters, according to AAP.

The Human Rights Law Centre and SCALES Community Legal Centre backed the challenge. According to The Age, the weekend legal threat prompted WA Police to reverse the ban on Lane-Rose, raising questions about the thresholds police use to decide who lands on the exclusion list.

Lane-Rose says she will not drop the case even though she has a Tuesday reprieve. She told reporters it matters that the government and the police commissioner "face scrutiny" over their use of what she called "extraordinary powers," according to AAP. She also plans to join a large anti-war protest outside the security zone on Tuesday, which organisers expect to draw thousands, according to the same report. All she wants, she said, is to be able to move freely through the city where she lives and works.

What this protest ban means for young activists

For young activists, the fight is bigger than one exclusion list. At 22, Lane-Rose is part of a generation of campaigners who treat public demonstrations as a core political tool — and the case will test the legal limits of the protest ban. She has a history of high-profile action: she was previously fined thousands of dollars over a foiled 2023 protest at the home of then Woodside Energy chief executive Meg O'Neill, according to AAP.

The backdrop is a security bill of about 11.5 million Australian dollars and a police operation shaped by what happened at the last Land Forces expo in Melbourne in 2024, when clashes broke out between protesters and police, according to AAP. Around 10,000 visitors are expected to pass through the Perth expo across the three days, according to The Age. Shanahan, who remains on the exclusion list, has argued it is wrong that he cannot peacefully protest an arms convention while thousands of children are dying in Gaza, according to earlier reporting on the media conference.

Organisers of Tuesday's march, called by the WA Anti-War Collective, say it will be peaceful and that there will be no repeat of the Melbourne clashes, according to AAP. The tension between young protesters and authorities is not unique to Perth — French students faced mass detentions this month, as GenZ NewZ reported.

Whether the court ultimately strikes the protest ban down or narrows it, the message is already travelling: young activists are willing to test police powers in court, not just on the street. With the expo opening on October 6, 2026, and the exclusion powers still in force through the rest of that week, the outcome will set a marker for how far the protest ban model spreads. Read more stories like this on the youth activists topic page.