Wednesday, 9 September 2026

 Michael GALEA (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (16:31): I rise to speak on the report of the Legal and Social Issues Committee’s inquiry into anti-LGBTIQA+ hate crimes in Victoria. As I briefly touched on yesterday, this was a very valuable inquiry to be a part of. The impetus of this inquiry was, frankly, a global spate of gay bashings that we have seen, driven by what is most likely believed to be online-driven hate influencers targeting particularly vulnerable young men and radicalising them into committing these acts of hate. We have had a number of incidents in Victoria, a very concerning number of incidents, and we know that through the very hard and proactive work of Victoria Police we have one of the higher arrest rates for these types of crimes compared to other jurisdictions. But we know of course that the true figures are likely much, much higher because this is a crime that targets vulnerable people. It is one that targets particularly those such as newer migrant communities and men from those communities who feel like they are not safe to be who they are and so are more likely to not go and report these types of crimes.

I do want to acknowledge Mr Puglielli for initiating this inquiry as well – it was a pleasure to work together with him on the terms of reference – as well as our chair, who I mentioned yesterday, who very ably led our work. I did say it was disappointing that the Liberals did not support the motion in the house, but none of that should take away from the work of Mr McCracken.

We had a great deal of evidence in both written and in witness form, and I do want to acknowledge two organisations in particular, who were also essential to getting this inquiry off the ground. That is Thorne Harbour Health and Switchboard Victoria, and in particular I acknowledge Chad Hughes, Caleb Hawk, Jenna Tuke and Simon Ruth. These people have all been absolutely passionate advocates for community and for making sure that the voices of people who have been so under-represented in this space and unheard in this space can be shared. I really do want to acknowledge the work that they have done, as well as that of our LGBTIQA+ commissioner Joe Ball, who gave some very powerful testimony and has done a great deal of work in this space too, and Jeremy Oliver from Victoria Police, who was himself instrumental in us having that high arrest rate and in making those early connections that helped us to get ahead and make some of those earlier arrests. It would be an understatement to say that a great deal of that comparative success is due to the work of Jeremy Oliver and his team in Victoria Police.

We had some very powerful evidence shared with us from some of the victim-survivors themselves, including David Brown, who was assaulted just a few kilometres from here. Most of these attacks have happened in outer suburban communities like mine in the outer south-east, but they have also happened across the state. Mr Brown was attacked – lured in daylight and then assaulted in a most vicious and awful way, with very, very clear and explicit homophobic insults thrown at him throughout his ordeal, which made all too clear the purpose for the attack.

I do actually want to acknowledge as well that we did have both Match Group and Grindr engage with our inquiry. The latter in particular appearing before us at a hearing – from the United States – was very much appreciated because we can only really get to the bottom of these issues by working not just across a legislative framework but with the app facilitators as well, who certainly do not promote or endorse these types of attacks but on whose platforms these attacks are happening. To have that engagement from Grindr and to have some honest discussion about what they are doing, and also where we can be doing more, was really valuable. It was, though, disappointing that no other app outside of Grindr or Match Group decided to participate in the inquiry. I also note profound disappointment that the federal eSafety Commissioner declined to participate in the inquiry too, given the exceptional importance of her work in this space too, and I certainly hope to see some further action from her office.

We had academics including Josh Roose and Geoffrey Steer, the latter of which gave us a very interesting breakdown into the offender profile. We do know that the majority of these are, as I said, young men who have been radicalised. There are different offender typologies that were broken down and various interesting things that we could go into. I did talk yesterday about thrillseeking, and whilst that is one of the predominant forms, the fact that it is thrillseeking should not take away from the fact that it is a hate crime, especially if you are being assaulted and having homophobic slurs. If the reason you are targeted is on the basis of your sexuality, it is still very clearly a hate crime.

On that note, though, I am running out of time. To acknowledge and to take action on this issue does not and should not mean that we are sidelining any other community. It is not a hate crime to have different views, but it is to take that out in the form of a vicious assault, and that is what this inquiry sought to highlight.