Historical homosexual convictions to be expunged

The Napthine Coalition Government will introduce legislation into Parliament this week to enable the expungement of historical convictions for consensual homosexual acts.

“The Liberal Hamer Government decriminalized homosexual acts in Victoria in 1981, however some in the community still suffer from the consequences of historical convictions for consensual acts that are rightly not regarded as a crime today,” Premier Denis Napthine said.

“It is now accepted that consensual sexual acts between two adult men should never have been a crime, and we are legislating for the law to recognise this.”

Attorney-General, Robert Clark said these historical convictions had caused ongoing harm and hurt to those who were prosecuted, leading to difficulties with employment and travel as well as the stigma of carrying around a conviction for what was a consensual act.

“No person should be subjected to unjust discrimination on account of their sexuality and this reform will help put an end to the harm these convictions can cause,” Mr Clark said.

The reforms will allow people who were convicted of offences such as buggery, gross indecency, or behaving in an indecent or offensive manner for engaging in a consensual act of a homosexual nature to apply to have these convictions expunged.

Under the scheme, a person with such a conviction will be able to make a confidential application to the Secretary of the Department of Justice.

The Secretary will assess the application together with any relevant official records to determine whether the applicant was convicted of an historical homosexual offence (which may be either a sexual offence or a public morality offence) and that the act would not constitute an offence today.

Where there were other parties involved, official records and other evidence will be examined in order to establish that the act was consensual.

When an application is approved, the Secretary will notify the courts, police and office of public prosecutions and the records of the conviction will be expunged.

Once a conviction is expunged, the applicant must be treated as if the conviction never occurred. They will not be required to disclose that conviction for any purpose and the conviction will not provide grounds for exclusion from any office, status or privilege. The person will also be entitled to swear under oath that they do not have a conviction for the expunged offence.

It is intended that the expungement scheme will commence in 2015.