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It seems unfair that a person who has 'done the crime and served the time' will have their criminal conviction held against them forever.
We are talking about all kinds of convictions: with fines, community orders, and with imprisonment of up to 30 months. Not included are fines received in the mail for traffic offences and other minor offences (they are not criminal convictions).
The Federal Parliament agreed it was unfair and so in 1989 amended the Crimes Act to introduce a 'spent convictions' scheme. It was particularly concerned that offences committed by young offenders (such as malicious damage, minor assaults, drug offences) should not be held against them forever if they were not repeat offenders.
The way it works is that if a person is convicted, and has no more convictions recorded for 10 years, then the conviction will ‘disappear’. It will not appear on a Police Clearance Certificate, which is a prerequisite for many government jobs, licences and security clearances. There are exceptions: sexual offences and offences against minors (under the age of 18 years) are never ‘spent’.
Recently, the High Court of Australia ruled that a 'spent conviction' could not be taken into account by ASIC as evidence of dishonest conduct when it was considering whether an applicant for a credit licence was "a fit and proper person to engage in credit activities".