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Telling someone about your criminal record

There are details of your criminal record that you need to provide if asked — for example, when applying for a visa to travel overseas.

You must provide details of your criminal record

You’ll always need to provide details of your criminal record when asked if you’ve:

  • had convictions within the last 7 years
  • been sentenced to prison, any kind of detention or borstal
  • been convicted of a sexual offence
  • not fully paid any fine, compensation, reparation or costs ordered by the court in a criminal case
  • had an indefinite disqualification and been banned from driving until further notice
  • been held in hospital in a criminal case instead of being sentenced, due to your mental condition.

You still need to tell when you apply for some jobs — including:

  • joining the Police
  • working as a prison or probation officer
  • a national security position
  • being appointed as a judge or justice of the peace
  • wanting a job mainly involving the care and protection of children.

You may also need to provide details of your criminal record if you’re involved in any criminal or civil action.

Travelling overseas

You may need to provide details of all your convictions when applying for a visa to enter another country, and this may affect your ability to travel.

When you do not need to provide details of your criminal record — the clean slate rule

If none of these conditions listed above apply to you, you have a clean slate, which means you might not have to tell anyone about your convictions or criminal record.

Clean Slate scheme

New convictions

If you’re convicted of another offence, you have to start declaring all your convictions again.

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