Chris Minns Announces New Laws To Combat Hate Crimes Targeting Young Queer People
Image: Chris Minns at press conference today. Image via Chris Minns/Instagram
In the wake of the shocking ABC investigation into a rise of IS-terrorist inspired attacks on young gay and bi men in Sydney, NSW Premier Chris Minns has announced the government will implement new laws to combat hate crimes.
The two-year ABC investigation into the reawakening of the IS terrorist network found confronting evidence of a spree of young gay and bisexual men in Sydney being lured via dating apps and viciously bashed, with reported cases stretching back to 2023.
The investigation obtained videos and victims’ accounts of IS sympathisers hunting and bashing gay and bisexual boys on camera, and are full of distressing details, such as a 16-year-old boy being forced into a toilet block, beaten bloody, and called “f***ot” and a “kaffir”, or nonbeliever, as he begs for his life.
“I’ve seen those reports on the ABC as well and they’re shocking,” the premier said today during a press conference. “They’re absolutely shocking examples of violent crime in our community directed against individuals because of their sexuality.”
He goes on to say he’s spoken to the Cabinet Office and the Attorney General’s Department, about putting in changes to the law.
Minns says he wants to put in “massive new penalties specifically to target this abhorrent behaviour,” and also acknowledges that these crimes are a throwback to a “shocking period in Sydney history”.
The premier said the reforms would potentially include heavier penalties for crimes where a carriage service is used. A carriage service can include text messages or phone calls using a mobile service, or the internet such as social media and email, or in this case, apps.
“It might be an aggravating factor or a new offence,” Mr Minns said.
“We will not allow a situation in New South Wales where people are being targeted because of their sexuality by somebody else. I want to make sure that we’re in a situation where police have got the resources, the DPP (Director of Public Prosecutions) have got the resources, so if someone is convicted of a crime like that, they can throw the book at them and they are subject to a significant jail penalty.”
NSW has no criminal offences specifically directed at acts of violence motivated by anti-LGBTQIA+ hate.
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The proposed new laws come only a few days after the Victorian Greens successfully put a motion forward for a parliamentary inquiry into the scale and scope of anti-LGBTQIA+ hate crimes across Victoria, focusing on a series of terrifying attacks against mostly gay and bi+ men, using dating apps like Grindr and Scruff.
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