Tasmania will pay financial compensation to people convicted under historic laws criminalising homosexuality and ‘cross-dressing’.
It is the first Australian state or territory to do so.
The bill passed the Tasmanian Parliament with unanimous support this week.
Laws
Tasmania decriminalised homosexuality in 1997, the last state to do so.
Prior to that, men in same-sex relationships could face up to 21 years in prison — the harshest penalty in the Western world at the time.
The law did not apply to women.
Approximately 100 men were convicted for “unnatural sexual intercourse” and “gross indecency” from the 1940s to 1984. No men were prosecuted for these crimes from 1984 to 1997.
It is unknown how many more were charged.
Tasmania was also the only Australian state to criminalise cross-dressing, a law that remained in place until 2001.
Until that point, the state’s Police Offences Act said it was against the law for “a male person” to “be in any public place at any time between sunset and sunrise, dressed in female apparel”.
Equality Tasmania spokesperson Rodney Croome said this law was used against transgender women.
In 2017, Tasmania began allowing people to apply to have charges and convictions for these offences removed from their records.
Your contribution ensures The Daily Aus can continue doing the work you love.
I want to give $10 monthly to help TDA keep doing the news.
Your details:
The policy did not include financial compensation.
In 2020, the State Government commissioned an independent review of the legislation.
The reviewers recommended adding a compensation scheme “to send a compelling message that the state is serious in its commitment to remedy”.
Compensation
Under the new scheme, eligible people will automatically receive payments when their historical charges or convictions are successfully removed:
- $15,000 for those who were charged
- $45,000 for those who were convicted but were not jailed
- $75,000 for those who served prison time or were subjected to psychiatric intervention
Deputy Premier Guy Barnett said the changes demonstrate the State Government’s “commitment to right the wrongs of the past.”
Response
Croome welcomed the reforms, noting many victims of the discriminatory laws lost jobs, housing, friends, and family, with some forced to leave Tasmania permanently.
“This reform will provide victims with financial redress for their trauma, as well as knowledge the state that once persecuted them now cares about what happened to them,” he said.
Croome called on other Australian states and territories to implement similar compensation schemes.
