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Government quashing of homosexual convictions welcomed but might not go far enough.

Rainbow Wellington welcomes the historic conviction quashing announcement and apology on behalf of the Crown of those whose lives have been affected by convictions for gay sex before the Homosexual Law Reform Act was introduced in 1986.

However, because the Government announced a case-by-case quashing of historic homosexual convictions the call for a systematic review of all historic convictions. still, stands.

Rainbow Wellington has been campaigning for a pardon and an apology for over a year alongside the petition that Werimu Demchick sponsored.

A former board member of Rainbow Wellington, Demchick sponsored a petition to call on the government by requesting a law change allowing the reversal of historic convictions for consensual same-sex encounters stemming from pre-Homosexual Law Reform laws which was tabled in Parliament by formier Green MP Kevin Hague on July 7, 2016.

The petition was signed by more than 2100 people.

At the time, Justice minister Amy Adams said a blanket quashing of the convictions would not be possible and addressing cases individually would be "very difficult." However, with the experience of the campaign, Rainbow Wellington found it extremely difficult to find people who were even comfortable talking about the convictions.

Rainbow Wellington Chairperson, Rawa Karetai said. "Most men do not want to go through the pain of revisiting their gay related convictions and would not want to even discuss it with us, let alone have their conviction known publicly."

Karetai continued saying that, "There is a lot of stigma and shame that people carry with those convictions and they've had a big impact on the lives of those who have the convictions. Hopefully, they feel comfortable to quash these convictions and put right to their personal history.”

The move is expected to erase the convictions of nearly 20 percent of men who were convicted before Homosexual law Reform.

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