Submission to the Expungement of Historical Offences Amendment Bill 2023 Consultation

The Tasmanian Government is consulting on the proposed Expungement of Historical Offences Amendment Bill 2023, which amends provisions of the Expungement of Historical Offences Act 2017,  which was created in recognition that criminalising consensual homosexual conduct was unjust and caused harm, which resulted in some people experiencing discrimination and disadvantage.  It also established a scheme to enable the expungement of charges and convictions relating to certain homosexual and cross-dressing offences.

The Bill expands the expungement scheme to allow for specified related offences where the Secretary has obtained advice from the Commissioner of Police that the eligible person would not have been charged with the related offence but for the fact that the eligible person was suspected of committing a homosexual offence or cross-dressing offence. 

The full text of the proposed Bill can be found here.

Read my submission to the consultation below: