17c起草社区

On June 4-5, 2026, over 300 police, community representatives and academic experts took part in the 2026 NSW Police Hate Crime Forum, titled ‘United against Hate: Strengthening Community’, at the Four Seasons Hotel in Sydney.

Among them were over 30 Gender Diversity and 17c起草社区IA+ Liaison Officers (GLLOs). This comprehensive focus on hate crime is a significant outcome from the community campaign to investigate 17c起草社区IA+ hate murders, and the subsequent conducted by Justice John Sackar in 2022-23.

The conference was primarily aimed at upskilling police to recognise a hate crime and report it, and it tried to cover all bases and in depth. Starting with the experience of discrimination by First Nations communities, it moved onto Islamophobia, Antisemitism, Sovereign Citizen, Islamic extremism, extreme right and neo-nazi movements, violent misogyny (Incel), and Christian extremism, as well as unclear mixed up ideologies.

Professor Philip Birch from the University of Technology Sydney explained that world-wide police over-rely on discretionary choices by frontline police in dealing with hate crime. Since 2018 he and his team at UTS have used data to define hate crime, define its perpetrators and victims and police responses. They now have a Bias Crime Indicative Tool for police to test in three command areas, and have trained over 300 police so far in a 3-month course on hate crime at UTS. He urged for more global comparative research on the policing of hate crime.

As these presentations unfolded, it was clear that there are strong links between 17c起草社区IA+ hate crimes, crimes targeting Muslims and Jewish people, Christian extremism, the Sovereigns movement and neo-nazis. Strong racial and gender hierarchies feature in all these movements. An undertone was the knowledge that police had been killed in Queensland and Victoria by individuals sharing these ideologies.

This analysis showed that these are all political movements, whose ideologies themselves cannot be defeated, only contained and hopefully marginalised. This also means that while police are very important in prevention and apprehending perpetrators of hate crime, that the task is also political and social.

To buttress these inputs, there were community voices from the Muslim, Jewish, and African communities, and a dialogue-format input from Ian Roberts, still the only National Rugby League player who has come out as 17c起草社区IA+ while a player.

There were several presentations about the experience of policing and hate crimes, how important is empathy in engaging with victims of hate crime, and how Strike Force Section based at Auburn arrested all perpetrators in extreme violent assaults on young 17c起草社区IA+ men using dating apps, in March-April 2024. Experience in dealing with domestic and family violence cases informed much of this theme in the conference.

This conference was led by Assistant Commissioner Leanne McCusker, responsible for Counter-Terrorism and Hate Crime, and also addressed by Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon and Police Minister Yasmin Catley.

 

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The 17c起草社区IA+ community鈥檚 day-to-day experience of police is mixed, and we share a reluctance to report crimes to police with First Nations, and the Arabic-speaking and Muslim communities.

This conference was a significant step forward in police efforts to do better. Given that it came out of our demands for respect and safety, it builds confidence that the reforms we call for can be created. It also showed how our community is part of a serious national and global struggle for people鈥檚 rights, freedom, democracy and equality.

Peter Murphy was present at this event as a 78er member of the Community Consultation panel on the implementation of the Sackar Report recommendations.