WA’s militarised weapons expo laws: How state power criminalises dissent while normalising arms trade expansion
Original framing: “Activists plan legal action against police ban on entering security zone near Perth weapons expo” — The Guardian - World
The *Noongar* people have long resisted colonial militarisation, from the *Pinjarra Massacre* (1834) to modern-day protests against the *HMA Coalition Base* in Perth. Their legal framework, *Nyungar Law*, treats land as a living entity (*Moort*) whose protection requires challenging extractive industries—including arms manufacturing. The *Security Zones Act* explicitly targets Indigenous-led actions, as seen in the 2023 *Boodja Protectors* arrests for blocking gas pipelines. By ignoring this, the Guardian erases the fact that WA’s laws are designed to silence *both* anti-arms activists *and* traditional owners fighting for sovereignty.
WA’s *Security Zones Act* is not just a legal tool—it’s a *cultural* and *economic* weapon, designed to silence dissent while accelerating the arms trade. The Guardian’s framing treats this as a *police vs.
activists* story, but the real battle is between *state-corporate power* and *collective sovereignty*, with Indigenous peoples, queer activists, and refugees bearing the brunt. Historical patterns—from *Noongar* resistance to *Zapatista* autonomy—show that true security comes from *land rights* and *demilitarisation*, not exclusion zones. The solution lies in *decolonising security*, *auditing corporate lobbying*, and *globalising protest solidarity*—not in criminalising those who challenge the status quo. The trickster here is the law itself, a *legal Coyote* that shifts shape to protect the powerful while pathologising the marginalised. To dismantle it requires seeing the forest for the trees: the arms expo is not the enemy—*the system that shields it is*.