AFP Investigates Arson Attack on Weapons Manufacturer as an Act of Terrorism

The Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team announced on 5 August 2026 that it is investigating an arson and graffiti attack that targeted the Lovitt Technologies facility located on Wurendjeri land in the northeastern Melbourne suburb of Greensborough in July 2025, as “an act of terrorism, potentially orchestrated by far-left extremists with anarchist and revolutionary ideologies”.

The incident that occurred at around 4 am on 5 July 2025, allegedly involved five black-clad figures setting three cars on fire, two of which were destroyed, along with spray painting walls and other vehicles with anti-Israel graffiti. The Australian company was targeted for its role in providing parts to the F-35 fighter jet supply chain, with these aircraft having heavily featured in the Gaza genocide.

Investigating the attack as potential terrorism means that criminal offences carrying maximum penalties of up to 10 years for property damage, suddenly become acts of terrorism that carry up to life imprisonment.

This shift towards approaching far-left direct actions as terrorism wasn’t completely unexpected, as in his 2026 Annual Threat Assessment, ASIO director general Mike Burgess suggested that “anarchists and revolutionary groups” can be threatening and raised Australian companies that are perceived to have links to Israel “being subjected to repeated acts of vandalism and arson by far-left activists”.

But this was not the only hint that such a development was on the cards. As Sydney Criminal Lawyers has been tracking, in June, the British courts sentenced four Palestine Action activists as terrorists over a direct action at a facility belonging to Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems, and a US court then sentenced eight “antifa” activists as terrorists over an action targeting an ICE facility.

The clearest sign that the Australian authorities would likely follow the example of their AUKUS partners, however, involved US secretary of state Marco Rubio convening the 16 July 2026 Ministerial on the Resurgence of Political Terrorism to ask representatives from 65 nations to join the Trump administration in its determination to confront far-left activism as terrorism.

Social justice-minded terrorists

“All companies and their employees have the right to go about their daily business safely and securely. Community safety is paramount and continues to be a key focus of this investigation,” said VicPol detective acting superintendent Anthony Wheatfill. “That anyone would use such violent and dangerous methods to express a political or social viewpoint is unacceptable.”

“Fire is dangerous and unpredictable and criminal offending of this nature – which has the potential to significantly impact our community and lead to deaths or serious injury – will not be tolerated,” the senior cop added.

The direct action against the Lovitt Technologies facility took place on the same night as two other unrelated incidents. One was a pro-Palestinian demonstration outside the Israeli-run Miznon restaurant in Naarm-Melbourne, which ended in a heated scuffle in an alleyway, along with an arson attack on a synagogue in East Melbourne, which was perpetrated by a schizophrenic homeless man.

The JCTT further outlined in its presser that the “extremist group” had also posted a video claiming responsibility for the attack a few days later. In the clip, an activist stated that the company ought to “stop arming Israel or else”. And the person whose voice was distorted in the footage also warned Lovitt employees that they knew their “addresses” and that they were complicit.

“We clearly have some information about these alleged offenders and are focused on identifying who they are,’’ said Australian federal police detective superintendent Anthony Hall. “At any time, we could be knocking on the door of the accused group. We know this is making some in the group anxious – and it should, because we are determined to bring them before the courts.”

“These alleged offenders could be facing a significant term of imprisonment.”

Australia is an “F-35 country”

Lovitt Technologies was awarded a contract by Lockheed Martin as part of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program in 2013, and the Australian engineering company was provided a $1 million grant from the Australian Department of Defence in 2023, in order to upgrade its machining capacity in order to secure further F-35 contracts.

With the onset of the Gaza genocide in October 2023, whether Australia was involved in a two-way arms trade with Israel became a key issue. The Albanese government was at pains to deny any involvement, yet by mid-November 2023, Declassified Australia had revealed that Melbourne company Rosebank Engineering provides the F-35 component to open and close weapons bay doors.

The Rosebank F-35 revelation, as with those about Lovitt, led Australian ministers to start clarifying that the country doesn’t supply any “lethal parts” to Israel. Defence minister Richard Marles told the ABC in August 2025, that even though it does supply parts to the F-35s used in the genocide, this is a “separate issue”. So “we don’t supply weapons to Israel” and rather Australia is “an F-35 country”.

However, Australian journalist Michelle Fahy pushed back against these assertions from Marles and others in the Albanese government, as she outlined that supplying parts that belong to the “most lethal” plane on the planet should likely be considered arms to Israel, especially as one of these components has facilitated bombs as large as 2,000 pounds being dropped on Gaza refugee camps.

Declassified Australia further revealed in mid-2025 that, in terms of F-35 parts from Australia to Israel, these are being couriered directly to Tel Aviv via Thai Airways flights, which tends to reveal how necessary locally produced parts are when it comes to dropping bombs from Lockheed Martin produced F-35s.

The F-35 global supply chain involves over 2,100 suppliers and contractors from across the globe, making up a vast network of manufacturers working together to produce these aerial killing machines, and the operation runs on “just-in-time delivery”, which is said to reduce costs, improve efficiency, and it ends the need for large stockpiles.

Targeting the left

Amnesty International warned that the terror sentencing of the Palestine Action demonstrators in the UK marked a reversal of the long-standing practice of the courts treating property damage that occurs as part of protest with a degree of tolerance compared to other crimes in order to protect basic democratic rights, to these offences now being treated as more serious than regular crime.

Rubio told his political terrorism forum in mid-July that the attitude that Amnesty was raising involved an “extraordinary ideological prejudice”, which treats far-left acts that should be construed as terrorism, as the “tragic excess of idealism”. And he added that “far-left terrorism” should be approached with the same disdain as the actions of neo-Nazis and Islamic extremists.

In line with this sentiment, US president Donald Trump signed the National Security Presidential Memorandum (NSPM)-7 on 25 September 2025. This document proclaims that there is a rising “pattern of violent and terroristic activities” that can be classed, due to its “recurrent motivations and indicia uniting” it, “under the umbrella of self-described ‘antifascism’”, or antifa.

The memorandum further outlines that the Trump administration will be treating these actors “with the same seriousness and ferocity the world has long reserved for jihadist terrorism”. And the press release related to Rubio’s forum called upon the 65 countries represented, which included Australia, to join the “global campaign to crush radical left terrorism”.

“The leftist looks at a perfect family with a perfect life and a perfect job and perfect kids that goes to church every Sunday and is filled with a feeling of inadequacy and jealousy, and they covet,” Rubio warned those gathered at the meet of the true nature of far-left actors.

“And they turn those emotions, ultimately, into a desire to subjugate, to oppress and to inflict pain and suffering.”

Images supplied to press by the AFP