NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has appointed a Supreme Court judge to preside over a long-awaited special commission of inquiry into gay-hate deaths in Sydney stretching over 40 years.
The special commission of inquiry, to be heard by Justice John Sackar, will be the most significant investigation into the anti-LGBTQ crime wave that swept through Sydney between 1970 and 2010.
Ross Warren, Scott Johnson and John Russell were victims of Sydney’s decades-long gay-hate crime wave.
Independent Sydney MP Alex Greenwich said he had pushed Barry O’Farrell, Mike Baird and Gladys Berejiklian for a commission of inquiry but Mr Perrottet was the only premier to agree.
“Forty years ago men like me were killed and no one cared, but now this government is taking this seriously with the long-overdue commission of inquiry,” Mr Greenwich said.
Despite calls for the state government to hold a royal commission into the crimes that haunted the LGBTQ community from the early 1970s, it has opted for a commission of inquiry.
A spokeswoman for Attorney-General Mark Speakman said “special commissions of inquiry were created to deal with specific allegations, including allegations of specific criminal activity.”
She said commissions of inquiry possess “the substantial powers of a royal commission” and commissioners were required to report to the NSW governor, including whether there was evidence that warranted charges being laid.
The inquiry will be tasked with investigating the “manner and cause of death in all unsolved suspected hate crime deaths” in NSW between 1970 and 2010, where the victim was a member of the LGBTQ community and the death had been previously investigated by NSW Police.
The inquiry will also examine the circumstances and cause of death in all cases that remain unsolved from the 88 deaths or suspected deaths considered by Strike Force Parrabell.
A judicial inquiry or an expert review was a key recommendation in the final report of the upper house’s Standing Committee on Social Issues Inquiry into Gay and Transgender hate crimes.
One major finding of the parliamentary inquiry, tabled in May last year, was that NSW Police had failed in its responsibility to properly investigate historical hate crimes.
Perrottet said the unsolved deaths had “left loving families without answers for too long.”
“This inquiry provides an opportunity to focus further scrutiny on suspected hate crimes, and under the leadership of Justice Sackar will work to close a dark chapter of our state’s history that has left an indelible mark,” Perrottet said.
Speakman said Sackar would have the power to hold hearings, summons witnesses, and inspect documents.
“A special commission of inquiry is a powerful investigative tool to look for answers for which many have been waiting decades. No one should have to suffer the distress of not knowing what happened to someone they love,” Speakman said.
The chair of the upper house inquiry Shayne Mallard said this was an important step forward.
“These suspected crimes may have occurred decades ago but for those close to the victims the scars and the pain still linger,” he said.
“Members of our LGBTIQ community have suffered grave injustices that were not acceptable in the past and are certainly not acceptable now.
“This inquiry will be painful, bringing some awful incidents back into the spotlight, but it is an important process to right past wrongs.”
The anti-gay crime wave across Sydney was worsened by the backlash against the increasing visibility of the LGBTQ community and the stigma caused by the AIDS epidemic.
Justice Sackar will deliver a final report to the Governor by June 30, 2023.
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