The government has confirmed it will walk back on provisions in its draft bill that would make it illegal to incite "animosity" towards sex offenders.
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The draft amendments to the Community Protection (Offender Reporting) Act were released for public consultation last month, and would allow information on the register to be made available to agencies involved in monitoring offenders.
A new disclosure scheme will also allow parents and guardians to apply to find out whether a person who has unsupervised contact with their children is on the register.
But the bill would also create new offences for breaches of confidentiality, vigilantism and inciting animosity against registered offenders.
This "animosity" provision prompted a community backlash, with former Liberal backbencher, Bass MHA Lara Alexander calling for the draft amendment's withdrawal.
On Tuesday, Police and Emergency Management Minister Felix Ellis confirmed the government would remove the animosity provision from the draft bill.
"It has been clear that there is community concern about a clause regarding creating or promoting "animosity' towards an identified sex offender," Mr Ellis said.
"Following the community's feedback, the government will amend this clause in the final bill to remove the word "animosity"' he said.
He said the draft amendment was based on 20 year-old Western Australian legislation that contained provisions protecting sex offenders from animosity.
"If the community is comfortable with removing the animosity provision, then we're all for it because the core of this legislation is about how we can better protect children, how we can share information about sex offenders across the community," Mr Ellis said.
Sex abuse victim advocate Steve Fisher said the 'animosity' provision in the law could have silenced victim-survivors.
"What is going to be regarded as 'animosity' - that word is very broad," he said.
"So you can see a convicted paedophile having a lot of leeway if he is abused by people."
Mr Ellis said the legislation in WA had never been used in a way that prevented victim-survivors from speaking out.
"Our intent has never been to silence victim survivors, in fact we want to empower them.
"If we think there are further opportunities to further strengthen that, for example around the animosity provision, then we are all for it."
He said the legislation would make Tasmania among the toughest jurisdictions for sex offenders in the country.
"We're also going to enable better information sharing from police to other government agencies so we can better protect children.
"There will be increased powers for police to release details of sex offenders that are not complying with their reporting obligations and, for example, go missing.
"Our sex offender disclosure legislation will be the strongest protections int he country in terms of providing protections from registered sex offenders."
