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The Australian Defence Force has announced a major legal change with personnel convicted of a serious service offence to have those details recorded outside the ADF from December this year.
Under the monumental change – a key recommendation of the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide – convicted personnel will have serious service offences, since 2015, recorded with the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) and uploaded to the National Police Reference System.
The recording of sexual and other offences between the ADF and civilian justice systems was previously held separately. Under the new change, a complete and reliable record will be available in any civilian police check.
Head Joint Support Services Division Air Vice-Marshal Lara Gunn said reporting service convictions externally was a positive step towards ensuring ADF personnel who commit serious service offences are treated similarly to those who commit civilian offences.
“Making that information available for police and other checks, when it is lawfully appropriate, is important for community safety,” AVM Gunn said.
“Unacceptable and criminal behaviour in Defence compromises the safety, health and wellbeing of our people, and erodes our capability and credibility. All personnel are expected to adhere with Defence values and behaviours, and leaders are to set the standard and address unacceptable behaviour.”
Defence is progressing implementation of the recommendation to address military sexual violence, unacceptable behaviour and military justice. In this phase of implementation, the most serious convictions (sexual offences, including acts of sexual violence), which occurred between 2018 to June 2025, will be progressed first.
Examples of the type of offences that will be recorded include assaults, fraud, property damage and making false statements in a statutory declaration.
The disclosure of the remaining category of convictions and those that occurred between 2015 and 2018 will be progressed in early 2026.
In future, automatic sharing of service conviction information to the ACIC will enable civilian law enforcement agencies to view service conviction information for police checking purposes. This information is not available to the public.
Affected current and former serving personnel do not need to initiate any action. This is primarily a back-office system notification only to the ACIC. These personnel will receive written notification from October 2025, advising if their service conviction will be disclosed as part of the process. At this stage, personnel will have the opportunity to respond if they wish to seek a review of the disclosure.
Legal support is available to those affected by the change in Defence’s reporting obligations. If you have received written notification, please contact Defence Counsel Services by calling 1800 563 563 during business hours to obtain legal assistance. A range of additional support services are available to current and former ADF personnel, their families and the public.
