Submissions

A key recommendation made by the Department of Justice Working Group into a disregard scheme progress report was to hold a public consultation. This was to ensure that those affected, whether directly or indirectly, their family and friends, as well as the wider LGBTQIA+ community and organisations could shape the disregard scheme based on their lived experiences of the harmful impact of criminalisation.

“The work currently being undertaken by the Working Group is of clear public interest and the issues it is considering must be considered with great sensitivity and respect to the harmful impact that criminalisation and resulting convictions had on the men affected, as well as their friends and family and the wider LGBTQI community.”
Working Group Progress Report, May 2022

The public consultation ended on December 9^th 2022. The documents from the Working Group explaining the key issues in the consultation are here.

Many LGBTQIA+ organisations, following discussions over a number of months, and other organisations and individuals made submissions to the Department on disregard and restorative justice. Some are included below.