It took police more than 48 hours to announce it was investigating a man allegedly hurling a homemade bomb into an Invasion Day rally in Perth as a "potential terrorist act".

The 31-year-old was charged with unlawful act or omission with intent to harm (endangering life, health or safety of any person) and making or possession of explosives under suspicious circumstances after throwing the device into a crowd of 2500 people on Forrest Place on Monday.

Indigenous leaders, rally organisers and politicians were among the growing voices who called for the incident to be treated as terrorism before police confirmed the Joint Counter Terrorism Team was investigating the incident last night.

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Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe questioned why police have not shared information about the accused's motivation or ideology.

"On its face, this appears to be a targeted, racist terror attack against First Peoples on our Day of Mourning. That possibility must be taken extremely seriously, not avoided or downplayed," she said.

The Greens' First Nations justice co-spokesperson Jess Beckerling criticised the "soft language and low-level charge" by police.

WA Police said they could not comment as the matter was before the court. 

But Australian Strategic Policy Institute national security program director John Coyne explained that police needed to prove "beyond a reasonable doubt" that the motivation was to commit terror and for the device to detonate in order to make a declaration.

"Some people will say it's self-evident," he said.

"The police and the prosecutors will need to be able to go into a courtroom and prove beyond reasonable doubt that their motivation was to create terror and fear based on an ideology.

"That takes a while to gather that sort of information."

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Coyne said there was an air of caution to declare an incident terrorism and pointed to the bombs found inside a caravan in Dural, Sydney, in January last year.

The incident was declared terrorism, but police later found the caravan never intended to detonate and was created to sow fear. 

"We want to make sure that the decision is made with as much information as possible. We don't want to potentially derail future prosecutions. We don't want to have undue worry in the community," Coyne said.

Police alleged the "rudimentary" bomb thrown in Perth contained ball bearings and screws, which were wrapped around a liquid in a glass container.

Officers arrested the man, who allegedly indicated the device may contain explosives.

It failed to detonate, but the crowd was evacuated. No one was injured.

The 31-year-old has been remanded in custody and will face the Perth Magistrates Court on February 17.

The accused's identity has been suppressed by the court due to concerns for his safety.

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Rev Patricia Allan says Royal Commission ‘focused attention’ on the need to make changes.

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Fishermen in Sydney Harbour have reeled in a 150kg bull shark just days after the species was blamed for a series of attacks along the NSW coast.

Chris Allchin said he and his friends had set out to catch "something big" in the harbour earlier this week, fishing near Clifton Gardens on the northern side of the harbour.

In approximately 20 metres of water, and away from swimming beaches, Allchin and the boat's crew hooked the shark and brought it onboard.

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The shark, which is estimated to be between 18 and 20-years-old, was donated to fisheries for research.

Allchin described fighting the shark as "a rush" and said it was a reminder of the size of sharks that live in the harbour.

"Sharks have been and will always be in the harbour, and that we have safe swimming areas that are patrolled or behind nets for a good reason," he told 9News.

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"Many people, including myself, have jumped into the harbour for a swim off the back of a boat, unaware of the potential danger below.

"Hopefully seeing that 150kg bull shark has educated people to swim in designated areas and not in the middle of the harbour."

Bull sharks are believed to be behind a recent string of attacks on people off the NSW coast, including a 12-year-old boy who died days after he was mauled at Vaucluse.

Bull sharks, like most species, do not typically prey on humans, but experts said they had likely been drawn in closer to shore by recent storms.

They are not a protected species in Australia.

The recent attacks triggered some debate over the shark population, though no cull or other control measure has been ordered.

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Christopher Luxon’s yet to officially announce where he will be.

Victim tried defending herself by hitting Wells multiple times with a portable speaker.

Australian astronomers have discovered a potentially habitable planet 150 light years away.

The candidate planet, named HD 137010 b, was identified by an international team led by University of Southern Queensland researcher Dr Alexander Venner using data from NASA's Kepler extended K2 mission captured in 2017.

The new planet is estimated to be only six per cent larger than Earth, with a surface temperature more similar to Mars, potentially below -70 degrees.

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The findings were published today in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The study found the candidate planet is located near the outer edge of the habitable zone, where liquid water could exist on a planet's surface.

HD 137010 b was spotted when it briefly crossed in front of its star during three months of Kepler observations.

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The candidate planet left only the faintest trace, clue was detected by a team of amateur citizen scientists including Venner.

"I contributed to this citizen science project called Planet Hunters back when I was in secondary school, and it was a big part of how I got into research," Venner said.

"It was an amazing experience to go back to this work and dig up such an important discovery."

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University of Southern Queensland astrophysicist Dr Chelsea Huang, a co-author of the study and Venner's PhD supervisor, said to date most of the potential habitable planets were around small dim stars.

"This causes a problem because these planets are so close to the host star that they experience an extended period of high-energy radiation," Huang said.

"Scientists expect this high-energy radiation will blast the atmosphere away of this planet and make them inhabitable."

Huang said the team expects this new candidate planet will have more favourable conditions for habitability.

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Venner said HD 137010 b was the first planet candidate with Earth-like properties to transit a Sun-like star bright enough for substantial follow-up observations.

"While current generations of astronomical instruments cannot fully characterise this newly discovered planet, it could become a prime target for future radial velocity instruments aiming to detect Earth analogues," he said.

"Future space missions designed to directly image Earth-like planets, like the NASA Habitable Worlds Observatory, may also be capable of capturing images of HD 137010 b."

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Australia's birth rate is expected to plummet to a new record low after years of steady decline.

The nation's total fertility rate (TFR) has been below the replacement level of 2.1 children per adult woman for almost 50 years now.

But the situation has become more dire of late.

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In 2023, Australia's fertility rate hit a low of 1.49, then dipped to a record-breaking low of 1.48 in 2024.

The predicted rate for 2025 was about 1.45, according to new data from The Centre for Population.

And this year it's expected to fall even lower to 1.42, the lowest it has ever been.

These record lows have been driven by multiple overlapping factors, from more Aussies choosing to have kids later in life, to older women having fewer children.

Some families stop at one child for personal or financial reasons, as raising a multi-child family in Australia can be prohibitively expensive between the cost of groceries, housing and schooling.

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