In their youth, some people may act foolishly and make mistakes that leave them with a criminal record. When looking for work or applying for documents that require proof of no criminal record, many find themselves stuck at this hurdle.

However, from the perspective of social reintegration, certain situations may qualify for a “spent conviction”, allowing those who have made past mistakes but maintained good conduct for a long time to better rejoin society.

Today we will look at which situations in Australia allow a criminal record not to affect future employment and document applications, so a person can start a new life.

It should be noted that a spent conviction here

only means there are no disclosable outcomes

"no disclosable court outcomes",

and in certain specific jobs or checks, the record may still appear — it is not a complete pardon or erasure.

Spent Convictions

The purpose of spent convictions is to prevent discrimination based on certain prior convictions.

The spent convictions scheme limits the disclosure of older, less serious convictions and findings of guilt.

If a check is required for certain purposes, convictions for specific offences will be disclosed regardless of how long ago they occurred.

Where the conditions are met, Australian police agencies will apply the spent convictions scheme in preference to disclosing the conviction record.

Commonwealth

A “spent conviction” can apply to a Commonwealth, territory, state or foreign offence that satisfies all of the following:

10 years have passed since the date of conviction (or 5 years for a juvenile offender);

the individual was not sentenced to a term of imprisonment, or was not sentenced to imprisonment for more than 30 months;

the individual did not reoffend during the 10-year (or 5-year for juveniles) waiting period;

the offence is not one of the exclusions set out in law. (A full list of exclusions is available from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.)

Once a spent conviction takes effect:

the protected convicted person does not have to disclose the conviction to anyone, including Commonwealth authorities.

The offence regulations also set out “statutory” or “regulatory” exceptions to prevent certain offences from being included.

New South Wales

In New South Wales, the law provides that if a person goes through a period of being crime-free, the effects of their conviction for a relatively minor offence will be set aside.

For a New South Wales conviction, if a person has a 10-year crime-free period from the date of conviction, the conviction will generally become a “spent conviction”.

However, certain convictions do not become spent. These include:

sentences of more than 6 months imprisonment (periodic or home detention is not treated as imprisonment);

offences against companies and other bodies corporate;

sexual offences under the Criminal Records Act 1991;

exceptions set out in the regulations.

Queensland

Under the Queensland Criminal Law (Rehabilitation of Offenders) Act 1986, a conviction automatically becomes spent after the prescribed rehabilitation period has been completed.

The time periods are:

for an adult, 10 years after the indictable offence at the time of conviction;

for a juvenile offender, 5 years after.

If a person is convicted of a subsequent offence during the rehabilitation period, that period runs from the date of the subsequent conviction.

Convictions in which an offender was sentenced to more than 30 months imprisonment (whether or not the sentence was suspended) are excluded from the scheme.

Once the waiting period has expired, it is lawful for a person to deny (including on oath) that they have been convicted, although the conviction must be disregarded for particular occupational-licensing purposes. It is unlawful for anyone to disclose a person’s criminal record unless:

the convicted person consents;

the Minister has granted an approval authorising disclosure;

the disclosure is exempt under the regulations.

South Australia

Disclosure of information is governed by the Spent Convictions Act 2009 (SA). If convictions are deemed “spent” under that Act, it is unlawful to disclose information about a person’s criminal record.

Victoria

For the purposes of employment, volunteer work, or occupational licensing/registration, Victoria Police may restrict the release of a person’s criminal record under its “Information Release Policy”.

If you have a criminal record, the Information Release Policy may take into account the age of the record and the purpose of the release.

If 10 years have passed since you were last found guilty, in most cases the police will advise that you have no disclosable court outcomes.

However, records older than 10 years may still be disclosed if:

imprisonment of more than 30 months was imposed;

serious or violent sexual offences are involved and the check is for working with children, the elderly, or people with disabilities;

it is in the interests of crime prevention or public safety.

Note that recent charges or pending matters that have not yet gone before a court may also be disclosed.

Western Australia

Under section 7(1) of the Spent Convictions Act 1988 (WA), after 10 years, convictions that resulted in imprisonment of 12 months or less or a fine of less than AUD 15,000 will be treated as spent by WA Police.

All other convictions, such as “serious convictions” under section 6 of that Act, can only be dealt with by applying to the District Court, which will decide whether to grant a spent conviction under the Spent Convictions Act 1988 (WA).

Finally

“I didn’t have a choice before; now I want to be a good person."

Where mistakes made in youth meet the conditions set out above, the relevant legislation spares the person from social discrimination — a genuinely humane approach. When a second chance comes, people often value it more and contribute to society.