Just.Equal Australia has called for financial redress for Australian service personnel discharged from the defence forces because they were LGBTI.
In a submission to a Senate inquiry, Just.Equal cited trauma experienced by discharged personnel as a reason for financial redress.
Precedents cited in the submission include financial redress for LGBTI service personnel in Canada and the UK, as well as compensation for those convicted under anti-gay laws in Tasmania.
Just.Equal spokesperson Rodney Croome said the people affected deserve to be financially compensated.
“Service personnel who faced systemic discrimination and discharge because they were LGBTI experienced loss of income and, in some cases, housing, as well as personal trauma that may have resulted in subsequent mental health treatment,” Croome said.
“They deserve financial redress for those material disadvantages, as well as acknowledgement from the Government that the treatment inflicted on them was unjust, that it must never happen again, and that the Government takes responsibility for the actions of its predecessors.
“Unjustly treated service personnel in comparable countries like Canada and the UK receive financial redress, so why not Australia?
“An important precedent is the financial redress scheme established in 2025 for people convicted under Tasmania’s former laws against homosexuality and cross-dressing.”
The Federal Government has introduced a bill that would allow military records relating to gay criminal convictions to be extinguished, but not records of administrative or medical discrimination and discharge, which were more common.
The bill is currently before a Senate committee.
Croome said the Just.Equal submission supports calls from organisations such as GRAI – GLBTI Rights in Ageing, for the bill to be expanded to cover all forms of criminal, administrative and medical discrimination against LGBTI service personnel, as well as an apology from the Government.
“We have also asked the committee to separately consider systemic discrimination against LGBTI people across Australia’s national security, police and public sectors,” he said.
“When such an inquiry was undertaken in Canada, it revealed an alarming level of historic discrimination.” inquiry was undertaken in Canada it revealed an alarming level of historic discrimination.” Croome said.
