March 17, 2025 — Equality Australia says new legislation to strengthen hate crime laws in NSW is an important first step, but warns a broader response is needed to address the rise in targeted hate against LGBTIQ+ people.
The legislation, to be introduced to NSW parliament on Tuesday, follows media reporting of gay and bisexual teenagers lured through dating apps and violently assaulted on camera in Sydney.
However, police data obtained by the ABC shows a wider pattern of violence, with almost 200 incidents of anti-LGBTIQ+ attacks reported in NSW since 2023.
“These reforms are a significant first step but legislation alone won’t address the growing threat facing LGBTIQ+ people,” said Equality Australia Legal Director Heather Corkhill.
“We are seeing an alarming rise in often violent, targeted attacks against LGBTIQ+ people driven by a dangerous and deeply entrenched form of hatred.
“Addressing this will require more than stronger penalties — it also means improving reporting pathways, tracking emerging hate trends and ensuring victims have access to properly funded support services.”
Under the package of reforms, The Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 would be amended to make it easier to prove offences were motivated by hatred or prejudice, where an offender demonstrated or expressed these views in the course of the offending or shortly before or afterwards.
The bill also includes stronger penalties for publicly threatening or inciting violence on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or intersex status, and a new aggravated offence carrying a maximum penalty of seven years’ imprisonment will apply where threats or incitement lead to actual violence.
A new offence would also target offenders who lure victims under false pretences, such as through dating apps, before committing a crime, with an additional penalty where serious assaults and robberies are filmed and posted online.
“Targeting people on dating apps and luring them into violent attacks is a deeply disturbing form of hate crime and it’s important the law specifically recognises that harm,” Ms Corkhill said.
“The government’s reforms send an important signal that violence and intimidation will be taken seriously, but hate is a social problem and criminal laws alone won’t solve it.
“We also need stronger reporting pathways, proactive monitoring of emerging hate trends and properly funded, wrap-around support services for victims.”
Ms Corkhill noted the legislation falls short of creating a comprehensive scheme of aggravated offences, where a person would be charged with a hate-motivated crime, leaving it up to courts to consider it as an aggravating factor.
“When hate is recognised from the outset, it leads to better data collection, greater accountability, and proper recognition of the harm experienced by victims targeted because of who they are,” Ms Corkhill said.
Ms Corkhill said the NSW government could also take immediate steps to strengthen protections for LGBTIQ+ people against hate speech, after they were expanded last year on the grounds of race alone.
“Intimidating rainbow families online, calling for violence against trans people, or threatening gay men on the street is unacceptable and demands a serious response,” she said.
“These reforms fail to address the widespread verbal abuse, threats, online harassment and doxxing that many LGBTIQ+ people experience, sometimes on a daily basis.
“Hate speech laws should protect all communities targeted because of who they are — not just some. We need to intervene earlier and call out hate before it escalates into physical violence.”
Ms Corkhill called for the urgent release of the Sackar Review into expanding protections to LGBTIQ+ communities.
“The review has been sitting with the government since November and should be released without delay so the response to hate tackles its root causes, not just the violence that follows,” she said.
Media contact: Tara Ravens, 0408 898 154
