REMOVING HISTORICAL HOMOSEXUAL DEFENCE SERVICE CONVICTIONS
Current or former Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel can now apply to have historical homosexual convictions extinguished from their service records.
Up until 1992, consensual homosexual activities could be prosecuted as service offences under Australian military discipline law.
While it has long been decriminalised, people still carry the burden of service convictions appearing on their service records for consensual same-sex activities that occurred before this change.
To address the ongoing harm caused by these historical convictions, the Defence Force Discipline Act 1982 (Cth) was recently amended to allow eligible individuals to apply to have convictions for consensual activity formally extinguished, meaning they are treated as if the conviction never happened.
This is a significant step towards recognising that these laws and policies were discriminatory and caused profound and lasting harm to many Defence people and their families.
Extinguishing these convictions will restore dignity and legal equality to affected individuals and their families.
The Defence discipline system is the final jurisdiction in Australia to allow for extinguishment of such convictions.
Any person who has a conviction of an historical homosexual service offence, their representative, or a person with a special interest in the conviction, can apply under the scheme. Family members of deceased veterans can also apply under this scheme on behalf of their loved ones.
Former Defence personnel who believe they were administratively separated due to a prevailing discriminatory Defence policy can seek a review of their administrative separation and have their record updated.
The Government has agreed to issue a formal apology acknowledging any harm experienced by LGBTIQA+ personnel and veterans as a result of historical discriminatory policies. The Government intends to deliver this apology later this year.
