REPORT ON PROCEEDINGS BEFORE STANDING COMMITTEE ON SOCIAL ISSUES GAY AND TRANSGENDER HATE CRIMES BETWEEN 1970 AND 2010 - 57TH PARLIAMENT CORRECTED At Jubilee Room, Parliament House, Sydney, on Monday 30 November 2020 The Committee met at 14:03. PRESENT The Hon. Shayne Mallard (Chair) Ms Abigail Boyd The Hon. Ben Franklin The Hon. Rose Jackson The Hon. Taylor Martin The Hon. Daniel Mookhey (Deputy Chair) Reverend the Hon. Fred Nile The Hon. Mark Pearson The Hon. Natalie Ward Monday, 30 November 2020 Legislative Council Page 1 CORRECTED The CHAIR: Good afternoon and welcome to the second and final hearing of the Standing Committee on Social Issues inquiry into gay and transgender hate crimes between 1970 and 2010. This inquiry was re-established following the Committee's work in the last Parliament. The inquiry is continuing to investigate whether there were any impediments within the criminal justice system that impacted the protection of LGBTQI people and whether they have been effectively addressed by current policies and practices. We are also continuing to examine the delivery of justice to victims of LGBTQI hate crimes and their families. Before I commence the hearing this afternoon, I acknowledge the Gadigal people who are the traditional custodians of the land on which we meet today. I also pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging of the Eora nation and to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in our various communities as well. Today we will hear from former police officers and a journalist who has reported on historic gay hate crimes. I thank everyone for taking the time to give evidence to this important inquiry. Before we commence I will make some brief comments about procedures and rules that apply to today's hearing. Today's hearing is being broadcast live via the Parliament's website. A transcript of today's hearing will be placed on the Committee's website when it becomes available. Today's hearing will contain information about violent crimes committed against LGBTQI people that may be distressing for some. If you are in need of assistance, I encourage you to seek support from counselling services such as QLife, ACON and Lifeline. Contact numbers for those services can be found in the brochures that are available at the back of this room and on our inquiry website. I also give notice that in today's hearing, given the nature of the inquiry on hate crimes, there may be some strong and offensive language used in evidence. In accordance with the broadcasting guidelines, media representatives are reminded that they must take responsibility for what they publish about the Committee's proceedings. Whilst Parliamentary privilege applies to witnesses giving evidence today, it does not apply to what witnesses say outside of their evidence at the hearing. Therefore, I urge witnesses to be careful about comments you may make to the media or to others after you have completed your evidence. Committee hearings are not intended to provide a forum for people to make adverse reflections about other people under the protection of parliamentary privilege. In that regard it is important that witnesses focus on the issues raised by the inquiry's terms of reference and avoid naming individuals unnecessarily. All witnesses have a right to procedural fairness according to the procedural fairness resolution adopted by the House in 2018. We can provide you with a copy of that if you feel you need it. Probably you will not today. If witnesses are unable to answer questions today and want more time to respond, they can take the question on notice. Written answers to questions taken on notice are to be provided to the Committee within 21 days. The secretariat will follow up with you on that. If witnesses wish to hand up documents for the Committee to consider, they should do so through the Committee staff. In terms of the audibility of the hearing, I remind Committee members and witnesses to speak into the microphone. For those with hearing difficulties who are present in the room, please note that the room is fitted with induction loops compatible with hearing aid systems that have telecoil receivers. Finally, could everyone please turn their mobile phones to silent for the duration of the hearing. That is all the housekeeping. SOCIAL ISSUES COMMITTEE Monday, 30 November 2020 Legislative Council Page 2 CORRECTED SUE THOMPSON, Former Gay/Lesbian Client Consultant, NSW Police Force, sworn and examined JOHN URE, Former Superintendent, NSW Police Force, affirmed and examined The CHAIR: I welcome our first witnesses this afternoon. I invite you to make opening statements. Mr Ure, you have not made a submission to the inquiry, have you? Mr URE: No. The CHAIR: You are welcome to make an opening statement. I suggest that Ms Thompson might go first unless you have prearranged it? Ms THOMPSON: I told him he had to go first. The CHAIR: Fair enough. I do not want to cross over that. Mr URE: I do what I am told. The CHAIR: Mr Ure, I invite you to make an opening statement to the Committee. Mr URE: Thank you very much. Thank you for the invitation to appear, too. I was the superintendent in charge of the Program Development branch of the New South Wales police service when it was established in 1989, including responsibility for the Gay/Lesbian Client Consultant, Ms Thompson. I joined the NSW Police Force in 1964 and retired in 2001 at the rank of assistant commissioner. The bulk of my first 18 years was spent in criminal investigation, principally in the Hunter and New England regions. When I returned to Sydney in the early 1980s, I spent two years as a law instructor at the New South Wales police academy at Redfern, then moved to police headquarters in a policy and planning role. Part of my planning duties included the general policing requirements for the 1986 visit of Pope John Paul II and the 1988 bicentennial celebrations. My policy role actually included writing the first police instruction for police interaction with people with AIDS. I was involved in three royal commissions during my service. I was the New South Wales police liaison officer to the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and led a working group which I can claim revolutionised the way we manage persons who come into police custody, and also implemented a number of ways to improve relations with Aboriginal people. I was the commander of a special task force that was set up during the Gyles royal commission into the construction industry in New South Wales to investigate and prosecute crimes highlighted by the royal commission. As commander of the State Intelligence Group, I provided information and gave evidence to the Royal Commission into the New South Wales Police Service. In 1998 I was selected as Director of the Australian Bureau of Criminal Intelligence in Canberra, reporting to the eight Australian police commissioners and the Federal Minister for Justice and Customs. Going back to February 1989, I was selected to establish the Program Development branch, which was a part of the structure to provide policy and program advice to the police commissioner and the police Minister, following regionalisation and the abolition of the office of the Minister for Police and Emergency Services. On my staff I had a number of program coordinators who focused their attention on challenges to policing at that time, including the likes of property theft, domestic violence, drug crime, street crime and the move to community-based policing. I also had five client service consultants whose job was to liaise and advocate for their client group, which at that time were identified as Aborigines, the aged, ethnic communities, gay and young. I left that command in late 1991 to go to the Building Industry Task Force. I do not bring any special expertise in gay hate crime. I can offer nothing in respect to the particular names that are mentioned in your terms of reference. However, I may be able to offer some observations on the policing environment and the community and police attitudes over those decades. Thank you. The CHAIR: Yes, we will come back to that. I think that is a very strong area for us. Ms Thompson? Ms THOMPSON: I was employed by the New South Wales police from 1990 to 2002 as the police gay and lesbian client group consultant. I am not a police officer by background. I did law at university. I am a public servant by background and was, once upon a time, admitted to the Bar. At the end of 1989 a very close friend of mine was murdered. As a result of that, it kind of led to a huge change of direction in my career, I think, because I saw the police job advertised under John Ure as the gay and lesbian client consultant and I thought, "That'll be a really hard job. Who would do that?" And then I kind of went, "Life's short. You can be dead tomorrow. Do something that makes a difference." So when I won that job and arrived in at police headquarters and John Ure was my boss, I remember on the very first morning, as he was talking, he took me first up to the Police Commissioner's Office who said, "Open-door policy. This will be a hard job. If ever you need anything from me, open door. You don't even need to make an appointment with my secretary." I went up to the Police Minister who was then Ted Pickering and who gave exactly the same open-door policy.