Deputy Lord Mayor renews calls for LGBTQIA+ anti-vilification protection

Perth Deputy Lord Mayor, David Goncalves, has renewed calls for anti-vilification protections after a 47-year-old Gosnells man was fined for distributing flyers targeting the LGBTQIA+ community.

Content warning: this article discusses harassment, doxing, offensive statements, and homophobia.

“The law still fails to recognise the distinct harm done when people are singled out, named and degraded because of who they are,” Deputy Lord Mayor Goncalves said.

“Western Australia criminalised racial vilification a generation ago in response to organised hate campaigns on our streets. There is still no equivalent protection when the targets are other marginalised communities.”

“Western Australians deserve a clear and accessible remedy when hostility based on identity crosses into targeted humiliation, intimidation or the incitement of hatred.”

Garath James Mouncey appeared in Perth Central Law Courts and pleaded guilty to seven counts of leaving an indecent or obscene article in a public place last week.

Mouncey produced and distributed offensive flyers making false and harmful allegations about members of Perth’s LGBTIQA+ community.

Deputy Lord Mayor Goncalves acknowledged the community members who supported the people targeted, those who reported in and the WA Police investigation that brought the matter before the court.

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Laws didn’t protect the true victims of the crime

Mouncey was charged in May following a State Security Investigation Group with Perth Detectives.

The flyers contain false and defamatory claims about individuals within Perth’s LGBTQIA+ community, using photographs taken from social media without consent.

At the start of the year, versions of the flyer reportedly included an image of an unidentified man alongside a second photo depicting an intimate act. Other versions of the flyers reportedly shared people’s images, names and addresses.

Gregory Helleren, a 66-year-old community advocate and member of the City’s LGBTQIA+ Advisory Group, was targeted by the hateful flyer campaign. His photograph appeared on flyers letterboxed across Perth from January 2026.

“The charges and penalty completely fail to recognise the true nature of what happened,” Mr Gregory Helleren said in a victim impact statement provided to the police, “A randomly targeted, hate-motivated assault on my identity”.

“The offender has stated that he does not know me or any of the other victims. It was a coordinated, ideologically driven attack targeting people purely on the basis of their sexual orientation.”

“My peers and I have spent our lifetimes fighting for the right to live openly. This public targeting creates a profound fear that a rising tide of unchecked hostility will force us back into the closet.”

Deputy Lord Mayor Goncalves said that, in the eyes of the law, “the victims of this crime were the people who found an obscene article in their letterbox, rather than those randomly targeted, whose faces and names were printed on it.”

“What happened to Gregory could happen to any of us – that is the definition of vilification, and it is exactly what our laws must learn to name and adequately deal with.”

Long-promised law reform against vilification overdue

Western Australia has no civil anti-vilification protections for the LGBTIQA+ community.

In correspondence to the Deputy Lord Mayor in April, Attorney-General Dr Tony Buti confirmed and committed to a new Equal Opportunity Act with vilification protections for the LGBTIQA+ community.

A government bill was anticipated “in the coming months”, with a review of the scope of existing criminal vilification laws also underway.

“I welcome the commitment from Attorney-General Buti,” Deputy Lord Mayor Goncalves said, “What the community needs now is a clear public timetable for the introduction and consultation of these reforms.”

“Western Australia needs accessible civil remedies alongside appropriately targeted criminal provisions for the most serious conduct – reforms designed with the communities they are intended to protect, reflecting the different and intersecting ways people experience vilification.”

‘The State Government must now close the gap’

The response to the flyer campaign has been worked through with the City’s LGBTQIA+ Advisory Group, whose advocacy contributed to WA Police confirming a Hate Crime Team investigation and establishing a centralised Crime Stoppers reporting pathway.

That partnership reflects the City’s LGBTQIA+ Plan – the first of its kind in WA local government, which made co-design and community capacity-building core commitments, together with advocacy for initiatives that would deliver a safer city for all.

“This is co-design in practice,” Deputy Lord Mayor Goncalves said, “Community members identified an emerging problem, brought their lived experience to the table, and worked with Council to turn concern into reporting pathways, advocacy and reform.”.

“While local government cannot write the State’s anti-vilification laws, councils have a powerful role in convening, advocating for and building community capacity.”

“Community capacity is public safety infrastructure. When those in the community have the relationships, skills and resources to act, people receive support sooner, and the whole city is more resilient and stronger for it.”

“The court has dealt with the offences before it. The State Government must now close the gap this campaign has exposed. Perth must be a city where every person can live, work, visit and participate without fear.”

For the latest LGBTIQA+ Sister Girl and Brother Boy news, entertainment, and community stories in Australia, visit qnews.com.au. Find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.