{"id":225895,"date":"2023-08-26T23:32:09","date_gmt":"2023-08-26T13:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/starobserver.com.au\/?p=225895"},"modified":"2023-08-26T23:45:57","modified_gmt":"2023-08-26T13:45:57","slug":"tasmania-to-expand-expungement-for-historical-gay-convictions-with-advocates-calling-for-compensation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.starobserver.com.au\/news\/tasmania-to-expand-expungement-for-historical-gay-convictions-with-advocates-calling-for-compensation\/225895","title":{"rendered":"Tasmania To Expand Expungement For Historical Gay Convictions With Advocates Calling For Compensation"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Tasmanian Government has drafted a new bill to expand historical gay and transgender criminal changes to be expunged.<\/p>\n
The reform to the Expungement of Historical Offences Act 2017, would allow additional charges available to be expunged for individuals who were affected by draconian anti-LGBTQI+ laws.<\/p>\n
Whilst many have welcomed the improvements, advocates are calling for the state government to provide compensation to applicants who are deemed successful under the scheme.<\/p>\n
Equality Tasmania is lobbying the government to consider recommendations made by 2016 independent review into the legislation, to provide a one-off payment to compensate expunged individuals.<\/p>\n
Spokesperson for Equality Tasmania, Rodney Croome, explains the impact of old laws have left individuals and families \u201ctraumatised forever.”<\/p>\n
“Gay and transgender Tasmanians convicted under our repressive former laws too often suffered involuntary outing, deep humiliation, and loss of employment, family and friends,” says Croome.<\/p>\n
“It is only fair that one-off compensation is paid to those people who successfully apply for records to be expunged.”<\/p>\n
Noting that few applicants have been successfully expunged, Croome says that further promotion of the scheme should also be considered by the Tasmanian government.<\/p>\n
“Another recommendation of the 2016 review was more promotion of the Tasmanian scheme so that those who would benefit from expunging their record know this option is available,” explains Croome.<\/p>\n
“Many of those convicted under our former laws are quite old now so improvements to the law and better promotion of the law must occur as quickly as possible.”<\/p>\n
The independent review states that the lack of compensation \u201csignificantly undermines\u201d the objectives of the scheme.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, the recommendation says, \u201cCompensation would obviously help make good the financial losses of those who suffered conviction, stigma and discrimination.\u201d<\/p>\n
Expansions within the new bill includes expungement for additional associated charges, such as resisting arrest, in addition to previous anti-gay and anti-cross-dressing laws.<\/p>\n
Additional amendments also aim to improve the scheme’s operations and management for applicants seeking expungement.<\/p>\n
The government is currently holding public consultations regarding the drafted bill, accepting written submissions either online or through post. Submissions close on Friday September 22, 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Tasmanian Government has drafted a new bill to expand historical gay and transgender criminal changes to be expunged. The reform to the Expungement of Historical Offences Act 2017, would …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":587,"featured_media":225896,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11206,11205,244],"tags":[37244,27532,245,21243],"class_list":["post-225895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news","category-news","category-tasmania","tag-equality-tasmanian","tag-expungement","tag-rodney-croome","tag-tasmanian-government"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n