Sydney Council Motion Commits to Protection Amidst Surge of LGBTQ+ Hate Incidents

City of Sydney Council passed a motion on Tuesday night reaffirming its commitment to protecting the safety of  LGBTQIA+ residents.

The motion, commended by Councillor Zann Maxwell, calls on the NSW Government to enact urgent legislative reform to strengthen the state’s response to targeted violence against LGBTQIA+ individuals.

The motion comes after a major New South Wales parliamentary inquiry confirmed late last week that right-wing extremism groups are increasingly targeting LGBTQIA+ individuals. The inquiry supported findings from an earlier ABC investigation linking a string of assaults on young LGBTQIA+ individuals to the same resurgent network that produced the Bondi Attack.

Maxwell’s speech made specific reference to the case of James, one of many young gay/bisexual men assaulted on camera.

“Sixteen years old,” Maxwell said. “Bisexual. A young Wiradjuri man. He met someone on a dating app marketed as safe for teenagers. He was driven forty-five minutes across Sydney. And in Strathfield Park, late on a school night, he was ambushed by four boys who kicked him in the back, in the leg, in the chest, and in the face. One of them filmed it. The footage was shared online, some copies bearing an Islamic State watermark.

“I bring this motion today because what happened to James — and to scores of others — did not emerge from nowhere. It emerged from a threat environment that was not taken seriously enough, early enough. And I want us, as a Council, not to let any opportunity go by to make our City as safe as possible for people like James.”

56 LGBTQ+ hate-related incidents occurred within City of Sydney over 2 years 

The motion included Police data, revealing 197 LGBTQIA+ hate-related violent incidents between 2023 and 2025. Of these, 36 involved the use of dating or hook-up apps to lure victims.

More humbling for Council,  56 occurred within the City of Sydney local government area.

Alongside urging the NSW government to progress anti-extremist reforms as a matter of urgency, the motion requests information. Namely, that all relevant state and federal security agencies brief Council on the current threat profile facing LGBTQIA+ communities.

In his speech to Council, Maxwell quoted Associate Professor Josh Roose, one of Australia’s leading extremism researchers:

“[Roose] has found that after Australian Jews, LGBTQIA+ Australians are the most likely to be killed by violent extremists. He has warned: “It’s only a matter of time before a young man or men are killed.””

“This is not new territory for Sydney. We have been here before. The murders and assaults commemorated at Mark’s Park remind us where silence and inaction lead,” Maxwell to conclude his speech. “The question before us today is simple: should we do all we to spot the warning signs, or do we wait?”