source : the age
West Australian One Nation leader Rod Caddies has urged people to stop jumping to conclusions and sending hateful comments to the party’s former candidate for Secret Harbour, who has the same name as a man accused of throwing a bomb into a crowd of protesters at an Invasion Day rally.
Liam Christopher Hall’s candidate page on the One Nation website was taken down after the suppression order preventing the identification of accused terrorist Liam Alexander Hall was lifted in court on Tuesday.
Caddies said he had been in contact with Hall and that he was “aware that some people are making the link, and he is monitoring the situation”.
He urged the community to be aware of defamation laws when posting on the internet, and the risks of misidentifying the One Nation candidate for the man now before the courts.
“We know that some people will jump to conclusions based on Google searches,” he said.
“Our candidate Liam is a fine member of the community and does not deserve any sort of negative attention just because he has the same first and last names as someone else.”
Hall won 8.4 per cent of the primary vote during the 2025 state election, losing to Labor minister Paul Papalia.
Caddies condemned the alleged terror attack on Invasion Day protesters, stating that violence must never be accepted in Australia from any side of politics or from any belief system.
On Tuesday, WA Premier Roger Cook, Opposition Leader Basil Zempilas and Nationals leader Shane Love all spoke on a motion condemning the alleged Invasion Day attack – the first order of business as parliament returned for 2026.
“I’m so grateful for whatever it was that stopped that bomb detonation, grateful that I can stand here with the immense privilege of reflection, rather than the devastation of mourning, despite the world around us,” Cook said.
Zempilas said everyone had the right to gather peacefully, to protest peacefully.
“It is part of who we are as Australians, and it is a value that we value dearly. We should always all fight for that,” he said.
Warwick man Liam Alexander Hall, 32, is accused of making and throwing the device – which had allegedly been designed to detonate – from a terrace balcony into a crowd in Forrest Place as they marched to protest the date of Australia Day.
While Hall was arrested on the day and charged with intent to cause harm and making an explosive device with suspicious intentions, authorities took a further nine days charge him with engaging in a terrorist act – the first charge of its kind laid in WA history.
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Holly Thompson is a journalist with WAtoday, specialising in education and the environment.Connect via X or email.
