Project No. 80

Commenced: 1982
Completed: 1986

The reference was prompted by various difficulties faced by people with a record of criminal convictions. In Western Australia any act or omission which under state law renders the person doing the act or making the omission liable to punishment is called an offence. A record of the offence could be held in a number of places from the relevant court records to individual police departments. Because of the potential of unwarranted disclosure of criminal records, ex-offenders faced a variety of problems associated with their past convictions even where they may have long since ceased to offend and may regard themselves as law-abiding members of the community.