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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-04-29 Daily Xml
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Historical Homosexual Convictions

In reply to the Hon. T.A. FRANKS ().27 June 2024).

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector, Special Minister of State): The Spent Convictions Act 2009 (Spent Convictions Act) prescribes the process for spending a historical conviction relating to consensual sexual activity between persons of the same sex. A convicted person or a person specified in schedule 2, clause 1A of the Spent Convictions Act can make an application for a historical homosexual offence to be spent.

Schedule 2 clause 1A lists those persons who can apply in circumstances where the convicted person is deceased, being:

(i) The person who was the convicted person's spouse or domestic partner at the time of death; or

(ii) An adult who is a sibling or child of the convicted person; or

(iii) The executor or administrator of the convicted person's estate; or

(iv) Any other person a qualified magistrate considers to be an appropriate person to make an application in the circumstances of the particular case.

Theapplication is made to a 'qualified magistrate', as defined by the Spent Convictions Act.

'Any other person' is intended to cover those persons outside of the deceased person's immediate family (given spouses, domestic partners, siblings and children are already explicitly identified). The provision is expressed broadly and it is ultimately a question for the qualified magistrate to determine who appropriately has standing to bring an application in the circumstances of a given case.

If a person is aggrieved that their application is refused by a qualified magistrate, they may wish to seek legal advice about their options to review that decision.

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