Governments do not usually pass emergency legislation for a trade show. Then again, this particular trade show sells weapons, and the last time it came to town it ended with dozens of injured police and more than a hundred arrests. So when the Land Forces expo moved to Perth this month, Western Australia legislated first and asked questions later.
The rulebook, ahead of the crowd
As introduced in June, the WA government's temporary powers allowed police to declare a protected area with checkpoints and roadblocks, search people and vehicles, direct people to leave, and demand identification without needing to suspect an offence. The police commissioner could also exclude certain people on safety grounds. The state set aside $10.5 million in its budget to police the event, and the Police Minister, Reece Whitby, pointed to the violent 2024 protests at the Melbourne expo as the reason. The powers, he said, were temporary, and they ran for ten days, from 1 to 10 October.
What actually happened
On Tuesday 6 October an anti-war march went through Perth. AAP put the crowd at about 2000. The state government's own wrap-up, published on 12 October, says “hundreds”, so the number depends on who is counting. What both sides agree on is the other number: the government reports zero arrests and zero move-on notices, from what it called the largest police operation in WA since the 2011 CHOGM. The powers have now ended, will be reviewed, and a report is due to be tabled in Parliament.
Two things can be true
Supporters of the powers will say the calm proves they worked. Critics will say a peaceful march was never going to need a checkpoint and an ID demand. Both arguments are fair, and the review exists to settle which one holds. We are not going to pretend we know the answer. What we will say is that the ratio is interesting: an operation on the scale of a heads-of-government summit, built for a crowd that mostly just walked, shouted and went home.
It is also worth saying plainly that the worry behind the laws was not invented. Melbourne in 2024 was ugly, and nobody serious wants a repeat. The tension is old and very Australian: how much rulebook should you write before you have seen the crowd, and who gets to decide when the answer was “too much”? That is a question a review can answer, so it is worth reading when it is tabled.
So we made the tee
URBAN RECLAIM is a gritty graphic tee built around resistance, collective identity and the urge to question an established order. The artwork is stark and distressed: two uncompromising figures, industrial symbolism and bold statement lettering, in the underground-protest register that streetwear has been borrowing for decades. The tagline on the product page says it best: Reclaim the streets. Question the order.
It is not a slogan about a specific expo, a specific law or a specific side. It is for anyone who has stood at the edge of a march, read the fine print on the news and felt, quietly, that both the weapons catalogue and the police powers were a bit much.
October Drop · Antiwar
URBAN RECLAIM — Graphic Tee
$49.00 AUD · Black Heather, Black, Navy or White · Sizes S–4XL
It comes in Black Heather, Black, Navy and White at $49.00 AUD, sizes S to 4XL, with delivery within Australia only. Part of the October drop. No restocks.
More from the Antiwar file
URBAN RECLAIM sits in our Antiwar collection next to STOP, a dove with an olive branch above a fractured bomb, and THE DAY IS RUINED. For the longer argument about why we make these, read the Antiwar editorial. Yesterday's post, on AUKUS and diplomatic footnotes, covers the other end of the defence conversation.
Question the order. Politely, and with ID.
Sources: AAP on the WA police powers; AAP, 6 October 2026; WA Government media statement, 12 October 2026.