WEBVTT - Daniel James on the Perth pipe bomb

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<v Speaker 1>At Forest Place in Ballou, Perth, on what This Country

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<v Speaker 1>officially caused Australia Day, around twenty five hundred people gathered

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<v Speaker 1>to mark Invasion Day. They listened to speakers, held banners,

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<v Speaker 1>and for a few hours took up civic space in

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<v Speaker 1>the way protest is meant to visibly peacefully together. Then

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<v Speaker 1>from a balcony above, an object arched through the air

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<v Speaker 1>and landed near the stage. Police alleger was a homemade

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<v Speaker 1>improvised explosive device containing nails, ball bearings and chemicals, later

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<v Speaker 1>described as a fragmentation style device with the potential to

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<v Speaker 1>cause serious harm or death. It did not detonate it landed,

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<v Speaker 1>the crowd was evacuated within hours. A thirty one year

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<v Speaker 1>old man was arrested and charged with offences including intent

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<v Speaker 1>to harm and possession of explosives. What happened next stayed

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<v Speaker 1>with me and I decided to write about it and

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<v Speaker 1>about what I think it says about who we are

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<v Speaker 1>as a country. I'm Daniel James, and you're listening to

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<v Speaker 1>seven AM today my essay on the Perth pipe bomb

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<v Speaker 1>and the silence that followed. It's Saturday, January thirty one.

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<v Speaker 1>By the next morning, the story had slipped into the

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<v Speaker 1>background hum of the news cycle. There was a brief

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<v Speaker 1>burst of coverage officers feel into forest, plays from every direction,

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<v Speaker 1>CCTV footage, a police press conference. You understand there was

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<v Speaker 1>an attempt to like they fuse and a few quotes

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<v Speaker 1>from Prime Minister Anthony Albanezi and I'll look forward to

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<v Speaker 1>for him being prosecuted to the full force of the law.

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<v Speaker 1>Speaking in Darwin, he described the arlessed act as shocking,

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<v Speaker 1>said the person responsible should be dealt with harshly and

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<v Speaker 1>urged authorities to throw the book at him, framing the

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<v Speaker 1>response in terms of punishment and process rather than meaning

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<v Speaker 1>or motive. There was no statement from Susan Lee, no

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<v Speaker 1>lec turn thumping outrage, no accusations that this was the

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<v Speaker 1>Prime Minister's fault, no ex prime ministers outraged at the

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<v Speaker 1>rise of hate directed at Aboriginal peoples. There was just

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<v Speaker 1>mute indifference, the kind of silence that tells us something

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<v Speaker 1>about this country in this moment. There will be no

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<v Speaker 1>national conversation, no special envoyeur pointed, no urgent reckoning convened

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<v Speaker 1>to ask how this could happen or what it reveals.

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<v Speaker 1>The attempt at bombing by any reasonable reading an active

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<v Speaker 1>hate and an attempt to silence a crowd and instill

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<v Speaker 1>fear because of who they were and what they represented.

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<v Speaker 1>Authorities have said the targets were Aboriginal and torrested Islander

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<v Speaker 1>people and their allies, and that ideological motivation now forms

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<v Speaker 1>part of what investigators are examining. A device police alleged

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<v Speaker 1>was an improvised explosive was thrown into a sea of

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<v Speaker 1>people gathered to remember invasion and survival. Yet the reporting

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<v Speaker 1>spoke in the voice of bureaucracy, as if describing a

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<v Speaker 1>traffic incident. There was no shock, no reckoning, no pause.

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<v Speaker 1>The man's identity was swiftly suppressed. His name was held

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<v Speaker 1>from public view. The story filed away, the nation's pulse

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<v Speaker 1>barely stirred. The absence was noted quietly, without explanation or

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<v Speaker 1>sustained curiosity, as if some names are easy to keep

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<v Speaker 1>from the light than others. Had the danger run the

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<v Speaker 1>other way, had an Aboriginal protest to been accused of

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<v Speaker 1>violence towards a mainstream civic crowd, the country would have erupted.

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<v Speaker 1>There would have been headlines, panels, and moral campaigns about

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<v Speaker 1>law and order. Instead, what unfolded was the quiet practice

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<v Speaker 1>efficiency of a media ecosystem that knows exactly how to

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<v Speaker 1>dull its own nerves when a story threatens the country's

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<v Speaker 1>image of itself. Australia has long been selective in its

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<v Speaker 1>sense of danger. Harm for marginalized groups becomes a cultural problem.

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<v Speaker 1>Harm to them is treated as an isolated event. The

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<v Speaker 1>forest Place attack didn't fit any familiar frame. It didn't

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<v Speaker 1>confirm a fear that the media knows how to sell.

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<v Speaker 1>There was no ideological packaging, no threat matrix to hang

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<v Speaker 1>it on, so it was handled as a blip rather

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<v Speaker 1>than a breach. Seeing clearly, this moment belongs to a

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<v Speaker 1>larger pattern. A nation built on control prefers its violence tidy,

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<v Speaker 1>either authorized by the state or easily condemned, while everything

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<v Speaker 1>else is softened, proceduralized, or ignored. That instinct now plays

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<v Speaker 1>out against a steady stream of AI driven social media

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<v Speaker 1>content deriding First Nations people, much of it amplified or

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<v Speaker 1>encouraged by well resourced campaign organizations such as Advance. This

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<v Speaker 1>material does more than offend. It reshapes the atmosphere. It

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<v Speaker 1>lowers the threshold of language, seeps into everyday speech, and

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<v Speaker 1>grants permission for contempt to be expressed openly and without consequence.

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<v Speaker 1>In such conditions, violence does not erupt suddenly, It forms gradually.

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<v Speaker 1>In a culture where to humanization is ordinary, outrage is

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<v Speaker 1>selectively rationed, and silence is mistaken for calm. It was

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<v Speaker 1>only after sustain pressure from First Nations peoples on social media,

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<v Speaker 1>amplified by parody headlines from satirical news sites that mocked

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<v Speaker 1>the silence, that the issue began to cut through and

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<v Speaker 1>attract serious attention from mainstream outlets. For First Nations people,

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<v Speaker 1>that normal has always been a narrowing of space, a

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<v Speaker 1>disciplining of story, and a management of reaction, achieved as

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<v Speaker 1>much through a mission and silence as through law. The

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<v Speaker 1>reflex is old, running through debates about heritage, destruction, used detention, protests, laws,

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<v Speaker 1>and broadcasting alike, where order is asserted and justice is deferred.

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<v Speaker 1>When Aboriginal people speak loudly, the nation titans. When violence

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<v Speaker 1>is directed at them, the nation shrugs. Attention remains the

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<v Speaker 1>real currency of power. What is amplified becomes part of

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<v Speaker 1>national meeting. What is ignored slips quietly into administrative memory.

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<v Speaker 1>The forest Place incident deserves sustained attention, not because it

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<v Speaker 1>was sensational, but because it eruptsed the illusion of safety

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<v Speaker 1>that the majority of Australia refers to maintain. That have

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<v Speaker 1>failed to do so tells us how the country now

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<v Speaker 1>manages discomfort by smoothing it into process, deferring to institutions,

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<v Speaker 1>and moving on before its implications are allowed to linger.

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<v Speaker 1>Authorities are now investigating the incident as a potential terrorist act,

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<v Speaker 1>with way Police working alongside the Australian Federal Police AZO

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<v Speaker 1>and the Joint counter Terrorism Team. Even that gravity failed

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<v Speaker 1>to disrupt the calm. When a crowd of Aboriginal peoples

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<v Speaker 1>can be targeted in a city square and the response

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<v Speaker 1>remains a quiet, procedural shrug, it is worth asking what

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<v Speaker 1>kind of security we are really protecting and for whom.

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<v Speaker 1>There has been no shortage of talk in this country

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<v Speaker 1>about hate, where it resides, how it should be named,

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<v Speaker 1>who should be disciplined for it. Some forms of speech

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<v Speaker 1>generate days of outrage, wall to war commentary and urge

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<v Speaker 1>a demand for action. When Aboriginal peoples are targeted with

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<v Speaker 1>an explosive device in a public square, the response barely registers.

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<v Speaker 1>Lives are not valued on the same scale. We can

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<v Speaker 1>take chance and the incompetence of its maker that the

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<v Speaker 1>device did not detonate, But we should also reckon with

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<v Speaker 1>a far more reliable force at work here, national indifference

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<v Speaker 1>so well practiced it no longer even needs to explain itself.

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<v Speaker 1>This essay was first published at kuarkey dot com dot

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<v Speaker 1>au is called The Mutant Response to the Perth bombing

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<v Speaker 1>exposes a pattern of national indifference. It's republished here with

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<v Speaker 1>Crokey's permission. Thanks to Safety Black