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":"
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