Tasmania is set to become the first Australian state to offer financial compensation to people convicted under its now-defunct laws criminalising homosexuality and cross-dressing.

The Expungement of Historical Offences Amendment Bill 2025, introduced to the state’s House of Assembly this week, will provide automatic redress payments to those who were prosecuted. Under the proposed scheme, individuals charged will receive $15,000, those convicted $45,000, and anyone who served prison time $75,000.

Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Corrections and Rehabilitation, Guy Barnett, described the bill as a major step forward.“We are committed to helping Tasmanians deal with the challenges that they face with compassion and common sense,” he said. “The Bill tabled today contains important changes to improve the operation of the Expungement Scheme, and provides redress payments for those charged or convicted under the former laws prohibiting homosexuality and cross-dressing in Tasmania.”

Tasmania has a particularly fraught history in this area. It was the last Australian state to decriminalise homosexuality, doing so in 1997, when it finally repealed provisions that carried a maximum penalty of 21 years in prison for consensual sex between men, the harshest punishment in the Western world at the time. It was also the only state to criminalise cross-dressing, a law that remained in place until 2000.

In 2017, Tasmania introduced legislation allowing people to apply for historical convictions to be expunged from their records. The new bill goes further, offering financial redress to applicants who succeed in having their records cleared. It also expands the scheme to cover related offences, strengthens confidentiality protections, and exempts applications and investigation material from the Right to Information Act 2009.

Equality Tasmania spokesperson Rodney Croome welcomed the reforms, saying many of those convicted had lost jobs, housing, friends, and family as a result of discriminatory laws.

“Financial redress will help make up for the pain and loss victims experienced,” he said. “And it sends a message that the Tasmanian Government is taking responsibility for the injustice its predecessors inflicted. It’s appropriate Tasmania leads the nation on this important reform, because Tasmania was the last state to decriminalise homosexuality and the only state to criminalise cross-dressing.”

The legislation enjoys support from all three major political parties and is expected to pass quickly through the lower house.