Scores of unsolved homicides in one state could be in part the work of serial killers and require an overarching special investigation, an MP says.
Some 67 women have gone missing never to be found or died in an unsolved homicide along the NSW north coast since 1977.
While police have dismissed links to a common offender, north coast resident and MP Jeremy Buckingham said there was nothing like it anywhere else in Australia.
"This is a complete anomaly," he told reporters on Tuesday.
"It is clear on any reading that we have had a serial killer operating on the north coast of NSW, or serial killers."
Some of the killings were among the most violent, most egregious imaginable, with some women dismembered and others brutalised.
But the Legalise Cannabis Party MP suspects the women's cases were not given proper focus due to factors including being poor, Indigenous and regional-based.
He called for a special commission of inquiry into the cold cases, saying it should be modelled on recently completed probe into unsolved suspected hate crime deaths of LGBTQI people in NSW between 1970 and 2010.
That inquiry found NSW Police had historically failed to properly investigate cases of historical gay and transgender hate crime.
"If you look at the modus operandi of these killings, there are striking similarities," Mr Buckingham said.
"Rape, torture, murder and dismemberment - that is an incredibly uncommon crime, and to find it repeatedly across the north coast is incredibly alarming."
At least 16 of the unsolved cases are subject of rewards for information, of up to $1 million.
NSW Police have however dismissed the serial killer claims.
It said a number of investigations had looked into the disappearances of women on the north coast, including a five-year probe examining teenagers Robyn Hickie and Amanda Robinson's vanishing in 1979 and 16-year-old Gordana Kotevski's abduction in 1994.
"To this date, there is no evidence to indicate a common offender was responsible for the disappearances," a police spokesperson said.
"The matters remain under investigation by State Crime Command's Homicide Squad Unsolved Homicide Team and the Missing Person Registry."
NSW Premier Chris Minns rejected the call for a special commission of inquiry.
"We've got incredibly committed homicide squad detectives whose business it is to investigate this information," he said.
"If the parliament decides to go down a different route, we'll respond to that, but I do have enormous faith in the professionalism and dedication of NSW Police."
MPs are expected to discuss the unsolved cases on Thursday.
