Labor welcomes the recommendation of the Parliamentary Committee on Gender and Equality that the government introduce ex gratia payments to people who successfully have historic convictions expunged.

It’s a sad period of Tasmania’s history that saw people charged with crimes, simply for being in a relationship with someone of the same sex. Shockingly, it remained a criminal offence to be homosexual until 1997 and cross dressing was not decriminalised until 2000.

For some time Tasmania has had a process in place for people who were wrongfully convicted under these outdated laws to have those offences expunged or removed from their criminal record.

However Labor has also called for this process to be added to with ex gratia payments to be made available by way of compensation to people convicted in this way.

We recognise many of the people who still have these wrongful convictions on their record are now of an advanced age. Many of them lost their jobs, livelihoods and loved ones as a result of homosexuality being a crime, and have lived with decades with the shame of this. They deserve justice.

We encourage the government to act swiftly to implement this recommendation that ex gratia payments be made available to people who have these historic convictions expunged - it’s the right thing to do.

Ella Haddad MP
Shadow Attorney General
Shadow Minister for Equality