Almost a year after the Queensland Government pledged to abolish what is know as the "gay panic" murder defence, no action has been taken.

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The case law precedent allows people accused of murder to claim they were provoked to kill by an unwanted homosexual advance.

The law reform campaign is being led by Catholic Priest Father Paul Kelly after a man was bashed and killed in his church grounds in 2008.



"It turned out that he had been bashed and left lying there overnight by two men," he said.

"And in the trial for murder it was raised that the victim, Wayne Ruks, allegedly made a homosexual advance against one of them and they lost control and bashed him.

"But it shocked me that that was even raised, or that that might even be some kind of mitigating circumstance."

He started a petition after the two men were found guilty of manslaughter, rather than murder.

Father Kelly said in the modern age, such a defence for killing someone was inexcusable.

"That just seems such an archaic law and tantamount to enshrining bigotry and hate crime," he said.

The petition, calling for the "gay panic" defence in Queensland to be abolished, now has more than 237,000 signatures.

'It literally goes back to the Middle Ages'

Academics argue the changes are long overdue, and say they highlight larger problems with the concept of provocation.

University of Adelaide law lecturer Kellie Toole said South Australia and Queensland were the only states to hold onto this partial defence, which traced its origins back hundreds of years.

"It literally goes back to the Middle Ages, so not only when we had different views about male control, but also when there was a mandatory death sentence," he said.

"It just means that we're sending the wrong message in terms of homosexuality and that we're leaving open that possible argument that the reaction to a homosexual advance was so extreme because there was such a revulsion to that kind of homosexual advance that someone has a partial defence to murder."

Queensland Attorney-General Yvette D'ath issued a statement saying that the Government was working on Labor's election commitment to ensure that an unwanted sexual advance could not be used as a partial defence unless there were exceptional circumstances.

But Ms Toole said the legal defence of provocation had been abolished in many states, as well as in the UK and New Zealand, and it was time for Queensland to follow suit.

"I think the law should be abolished so that if it does come up again it's crystal clear in Australian law that that won't be a viable defence for anybody," she said.