The NSW Government has proposed a new bill criminalising luring victims with the intention to attack or harass them, and increasing penalties for violence and threats towards LGBTQIA+ people.
It follows a series of incidents where young LGBTQIA+ people were lured to meet up with someone they had met online, only to be assaulted.
Premier Chris Minns called the penalties “serious consequences” for “sickening” attacks.
The Coalition Opposition said it needed to review the bill before deciding whether or not to support it.
Background
In February, ABC’s ‘7.30’ program reported repeated violent attacks and harassment towards LGBTQIA+ young people in Sydney.
Alleged offenders were shown bashing and abusing gay and bisexual men, who they had lured to parks and beaches using dating apps. The program said the attacks were inspired by terrorist organisation ISIS.
In response, Minns said he would look at introducing a law “specifically to target this abhorrent behaviour.”
New laws
On Tuesday, the Government introduced a bill with a new offence focused on offenders who lurevictims for the purpose of committing crimes against them.
It has also proposed increasing the penalty for threatening or inciting violence due to sexuality or gender identity from three to five years’ imprisonment. If violence results from these threats, the sentence would increase to seven years.
Minns called the bill “a clear message” to those who “target someone out of hatred or... lure someone into harm”.
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The Government is also seeking to make it easier to prove offenders were motivated by hatred or prejudice.
Crimes deemed to be driven by hate are considered aggravated offences, meaning they attract harsher penalties.
Under the proposed changes, if a perpetrator shows hatred or prejudice at the time of the offence, the aggravating factor will apply.
Attorney-General Michael Daley said the legislation would make it easier for “vulnerable community members to seek justice” and to “charge and prosecute perpetrators of these appalling crimes.”
Crossbench
Greens MP Jenny Leong said the party would look “very closely” at the bill, but that “we cannot police our way out of what is fundamentally a social problem”.
In the 2021 Census, Leong’s electorate of Newtown had the largest percentage of people in same-sex couples in NSW, with 5.3% of residents.
Independent MP Alex Greenwich – who is openly gay – said the bill would make it safer for “everyone who uses an app to meet people.” Greenwich added that he believes the state needs “a fully funded LGBTQ legal service”.
Coalition
Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane said the Coalition is “supportive in principle... but we need to review the legislation.”
“Young people are being groomed and coerced into perpetuating hate speech and violence on others,” Sloane said, which she believes is addressed in the Coalition’s Countering Violent Extremism Bill, introduced in February.
Shadow Attorney-General Damien Tudehope said the Coalition’s bill “directly addresses this wave of violence by creating new offences of grooming, recruiting or coercing people into violent extremism.”
