Annulled Convictions in Tasmania: How the Annulled Convictions Act 2003 Works

Tasmania doesn't use the term "spent conviction" at all: under the Annulled Convictions Act 2003 (Tas), a minor conviction is automatically annulled after a period of good behaviour, but annulment is conditional, not permanent, since a later conviction can lead a court to order the earlier one revived.

This article addresses how a conviction becomes annulled under Tasmanian law, meaning it no longer needs to be disclosed once the good-behaviour period has run. It does not tell a reader whether their own specific conviction is, or will become, annulled. For the Commonwealth scheme and how Tasmania compares to the other states and territories, see spent convictions in Australia.

Annulment, not "spent": a real terminology difference

Every other Australian jurisdiction in this cluster uses "spent conviction." Tasmania's governing statute is the Annulled Convictions Act 2003 (Tas), and its long title describes the purpose precisely: to facilitate rehabilitation "by providing that in certain circumstances minor convictions are annulled for nearly all purposes." The terminology choice is deliberate, and it matters beyond wording, because annulment in Tasmania carries a structural feature, described below, that the word "spent" doesn't usually imply.

How annulment works: automatic, not application-based

Section 6(1) is the operative rule: "If a person with a minor conviction is of good behaviour for a required period, the conviction is annulled." This is self-executing. There is no application, no certificate and no administrative step required to trigger it; Tasmania Police confirms this directly, applying the Act's automatic test itself at the point a police record check is released rather than requiring the person to have completed a prior annulment process.

A second, narrower automatic path exists under section 8: a minor conviction is annulled if the underlying offence has ceased, by operation of law, to be an offence, and is prescribed as one to which section 8 applies.

Waiting periods, and what "good behaviour" actually requires

Section 6(2) sets the required period:

• 10 years for a person who was an adult at the time of conviction (section 6(2)(a)).
• 5 years for a person who was a youth, under 18, at the time of conviction (section 6(2)(b)).

Both run from the day the conviction was recorded. "Good behaviour" is defined narrowly in section 6(3): the person must not be convicted of an offence punishable by imprisonment during the period. A conviction that carries no imprisonment exposure, such as most traffic infringements, does not reset the clock.

If the person is convicted of an imprisonment-punishable offence during the required period, section 6(4) does not permanently block annulment; it resets the clock, recomputing a fresh 10-year or 5-year period from the date of the new conviction. Traffic offences are generally disregarded when calculating another conviction's required period and vice versa (section 7), except for a defined list of serious driving offences, including culpable driving and drink-driving offences, which do count against any conviction's clock (section 7(3)).

There is no separate juvenile statute layering a different rule on top; the 5-year period for a youth is itself the juvenile-specific rule, with the Youth Justice Act 1997 only supplying definitions the Annulled Convictions Act incorporates.

What can never be annulled

Section 3(1)'s definition of "minor conviction" excludes:

• A conviction carrying a sentence of imprisonment of more than 6 months, including a wholly or partly suspended sentence. A suspended 7-month sentence is excluded even though no time is actually served.
• A conviction for a defined "sexual offence," a closed list of Criminal Code and related provisions, including historical offences as they stood before 14 May 1997.
• A "prescribed conviction," any further category the Governor adds by regulation.

The revival mechanism: why annulment is conditional, not permanent

This is the feature that separates Tasmania's scheme most sharply from the ordinary meaning of "spent" elsewhere. Section 9 gives an annulled conviction the effects a reader would expect: no disclosure obligation, treated as not forming part of the official criminal record, and not proper grounds to refuse, revoke or dismiss from an appointment.

But section 10 lets a court order a previously annulled conviction revived, treated "as if it had never been annulled," in three circumstances: the person is reconvicted of the same offence and the court finds continued annulment futile or against the public interest; the person is reconvicted of any offence and the court weighs deterrence and punishment factors and finds revival in the public interest; or, since a 2021 amendment, the person becomes a "dangerous criminal" under the Dangerous Criminals and High Risk Offenders Act 2021. Once revived, the conviction is no longer annulled at all.

This means an annulled conviction in Tasmania is conditionally, not permanently, erased. Its status can be reopened by a court years later in a way that "spent" status, in the way the term is usually understood, does not typically carry.

The disclosure and access offences

Section 11 penalises improper disclosure of another person's annulled conviction: threatening to disclose one (section 11(1)), or disclosing one without lawful authority and without consent (section 11(2)), each carrying a penalty of up to 50 penalty units. Section 12 penalises fraudulently or dishonestly obtaining annulled-conviction information (section 12(1)), or taking an annulled conviction into account for an unauthorised purpose (section 12(2)), also up to 50 penalty units each.

At Tasmania's current penalty-unit value of $213 (effective 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027), the maximum for any of these offences is 50 x $213 = $10,650. This figure re-indexes every 1 July, so a reader checking the current maximum should confirm the year's published rate.

Where an annulled conviction still shows up

Schedule 1 to the Act, headed "Non-exempt applications," lists roles, licences and proceedings across 10 Parts (numbered 1 through 8, with two additional lettered Parts, 6A and 7A, inserted between the numbered ones) for which an annulled conviction must still be disclosed, including:

• Judicial and legal roles (judges, magistrates, admission as a lawyer) and enforcement roles (police, border protection).
• Prisons, parole and youth justice staff.
• Educational and child-related roles, including "engagement in a regulated activity" under the Registration to Work with Vulnerable People Act 2013, Tasmania's Working with Children Check equivalent, along with interstate equivalents.
• Health practitioner registration, drugs and poisons licensing, and hazardous-substances permits.
• Firearms: "a licence, of any kind or category, under the Firearms Act 1996" is expressly listed in Schedule 1, Part 8.

For the mechanics of the state's Working with Children Check equivalent and general police checks, see the Registration to Work with Vulnerable People page and the national police check page; this page only covers how an annulled conviction is treated once inside those processes.

On a National Police Check

Tasmania Police releases record information "in accordance with the Annulled Convictions Act 2003." For a check purpose to which annulment applies, an annulled minor conviction is not disclosed once the 10-year (adult) or 5-year (youth) good-behaviour period has passed. A conviction carrying more than 6 months' imprisonment, or a sexual offence, is disclosed regardless of age or how much time has passed. A check made for a Schedule 1 purpose is labelled as such and will show minor convictions that would otherwise be withheld.

Discrimination protection: broader than "annulled conviction," not a synonym for it

The Anti-Discrimination Act 1998 (Tas) lists "irrelevant criminal record" as a protected attribute at section 16(q). Its definition in section 3(1) is deliberately broad, covering arrests where no further action was taken, charges dismissed or withdrawn, acquittals, quashed convictions, pardons, historical-offence expungements, and, separately, a conviction whose circumstances "are not directly relevant to the situation in which the discrimination arises." An annulled conviction would typically fall within that last, open-ended category, but the Act never uses the word "annulled" itself, and the concept reaches further, covering records the Annulled Convictions Act does not touch at all, such as an acquittal or a withdrawn charge.

Only one exception exists: section 50 permits discrimination on this ground in the education, training or care of children, if reasonably necessary to protect a child's wellbeing. A single, narrow carve-out is why this protection is often described as unusually strong by Australian standards.

Recent reforms

No wholesale rewrite of the core annulment mechanism (sections 6 to 10) has occurred since 2003. Recent amendments have been consequential updates: legislation in 2023 and 2024 tracked Criminal Code renumbering in the sexual-offence list, added the State Litigator to Schedule 1, and updated racing and gaming references to the Racing Regulation and Integrity Act 2024. A 2021 amendment added the section 10(4) revival ground tied to the Dangerous Criminals and High Risk Offenders Act 2021. None of these changed the waiting periods, the 6-month exclusion threshold, or the non-disclosure effect itself.

This article provides general legal information about annulled convictions in Tasmania, verified against the Annulled Convictions Act 2003 (Tas) as accessed 18 August 2026. It does not assess whether any individual reader's own conviction is, or will become, annulled. For advice on your situation, consult a legal practitioner admitted in Tasmania.

Related reading: spent convictions in Australia, the background checks hub, national police checks in Australia, the Registration to Work with Vulnerable People in Tasmania, and criminal record and employment rights in Australia.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Tasmania use the term "spent conviction"?

No. Tasmania's Annulled Convictions Act 2003 uses "annulment" instead. The core effect, non-disclosure and removal from the official record, is broadly similar to a spent conviction elsewhere, but annulment has a structural difference: a court can later order it revived.

How long until a conviction is annulled in Tasmania?

10 years of good behaviour for a person who was an adult at the time of conviction, or 5 years for a person who was under 18. "Good behaviour" means not being convicted of an imprisonment-punishable offence during that period. Annulment happens automatically once the period runs; no application is required.

Can an annulled conviction in Tasmania come back?

Yes. Under section 10 of the Annulled Convictions Act 2003, a court can order a previously annulled conviction revived if the person is later reconvicted and the court finds continued annulment against the public interest, or if the person becomes a "dangerous criminal" under the Dangerous Criminals and High Risk Offenders Act 2021. This is a genuine structural difference from how "spent" is usually understood in other states.

What convictions can never be annulled in Tasmania?

A conviction carrying a sentence of more than 6 months' imprisonment, including a suspended sentence, a defined sexual offence, or a conviction prescribed by regulation, can never be annulled under section 3(1) of the Annulled Convictions Act 2003.

What is the penalty for unlawfully disclosing an annulled conviction in Tasmania?

Up to 50 penalty units under section 11 or section 12 of the Annulled Convictions Act 2003. At the current rate of $213 per penalty unit (1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027), that is a maximum of $10,650.