I have defended more than one lawyer whose client said the lawyer had failed to advise him properly as to the consequences of a guilty plea. There are many more gradations of disposition of criminal prosecutions than I had realised, and ‘without conviction’ does not mean that society forgets the transgression ever after for all purposes. I seem to recall that even pending charges appeared on the Police’s LEAP database, which generates criminal record checks. Victoria has no spent convictions legislation, unlike the other states and territories other than South Australia, but the situation is not quite so simple as that statement makes it sound, since there are certain practical non-legislative impediments to obtaining criminal record checks which go back too far. Here is a link to a Melbourne University Law Review article which seems to contain a wealth of up to date scholarship on the consequences of various dispositions of criminal proceedings. The authors are Brownyn Naylor, Associate Professor Moira Paterson, and Professor Marilyn Pittard.
The Commonwealth spent conviction provisions are extraordinary. Section 85ZW of the Crimes Act amounts to a licence to commit what would otherwise be perjury. Rather undermining the value of sworn evidence as indicative of truth.