John Avery

John Avery served as Commissioner of Police from August 1984 to March 1991, a period that encompasses the documented peak of anti-gay and anti-transgender hate violence in New South Wales. The years from the mid-1980s through to 1990 saw an extraordinary number of gay men killed in circumstances the SCOI (Special Commission of Inquiry) later classified as likely hate crimes, with particular concentrations of deaths in the eastern suburbs, inner west, and along the Georges River. Under Avery’s command, NSW Police established the Police-Gay Liaison Group in 1985 and appointed a dedicated Police Gay Liaison Officer (GLLO) in 1988, representing early institutional attempts to engage with the gay community. In early 1991, a taskforce was established to investigate violence on and around Oxford Street. Despite these measures, the SCOI found that many deaths from this period were inadequately investigated at the time, with failures including assumption of self-harm, inadequate scene examination, and the effective dismissal of gay victims as undeserving of serious inquiry.

Tenure dates sourced from Wikipedia: List of commissioners of the New South Wales Police. Wikipedia is used for reference only; substantive claims are sourced to primary documents cited elsewhere in this project.