Australian troops convicted of serious crimes during their military service will get a civilian record of their offending.
Under the current rules, when a person is convicted through the military justice system it's not always shared with police forces across the country.
The Albanese government has accepted the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide's recommendation that the Australian Defence Force record serious crimes with civilian authorities.
The military will also be required to have a complete and reliable record of all its members' serious convictions in civilian courts.
Defence is working with the federal government's law enforcement agency and the Attorney-General's Department to feed those records into the national police reference system, with plans for this to happen from early 2025.
This means Defence data will be made available for police reference checks.
"This ... ensures that service convictions that society would expect to appear on a criminal history record apply to members of the ADF, even once they leave the defence force," the government's response reads.
Defence Personnel Minister Matt Keogh said "important work" was already being done to make sure criminal offences would be properly recorded and available to appear on criminal records at a national level.
Setting the system up has taken longer than Defence officials expected, as the department figures out how to streamline the data.
Greens Defence spokesman David Shoebridge said someone could be charged with multiple cases of domestic violence and then leave the military with a completely clean record.
"This means if they re-offend, there is no way for civilian courts to learn about their history and factor it into sentencing," he told AAP.
"Every day we wait there is another offender who leaves the military without the risk of their past ever catching up to them and that is an environment that makes both Defence and the broader public far less safe."
The latest Director of Military Prosecutions annual report showed in 2023 its office received 93 referrals.
Sexual assault and related offences was the category with the highest number of offences, with 34 referrals made.
Fraud and deception followed as the category with the second highest number of offences being sent to the Office of the Director of Military Prosecutions.
The royal commission found the defence force did not know how many of its personnel had been convicted in civilian courts - even if the offending was against other members.
