Hello all!

My husband and I have travel plans to go to Australia this December. I applied for a ETA visa and was almost immediately accepted (Yay for me).
The hubby, however, has a pending subclass 600 visitor visa. He was unable to apply for the ETA like I was due to two previous DUIs on his record (his biggest regrets in life!) and serving jail time because of them. His probation sentencing required so many hours of AA, weekly meetings with the probation officer, license revoked for 4 years, and completed 6 or 7 weekends of jail time in total, plus a whole lot of fines.
Had he not completed the requirements (the probation hearing I guess it’s called??), he would have had to serve 12 months jail time. This was 5 years ago, if it matters.

Part of the character requirements states (from the Australian Government Affairs website) “you will not pass the character test if you have a substantial criminal record, meaning you have been sentenced to 12 months or more in prison, or multiple sentences that add up to more than 12 months in prison. A suspended sentence is considered a prison sentence”.

We are freaking out that his visa will not be accepted due to the 12 month sentencing (even though he did not serve the 12 months).
Does this mean he’s automatically going to be declined? Is there anything we can do to help his case? Anyone here have a similar situation they can share where they did get accepted? I’m so anxious waiting for response and fearing he’s going to get rejected.

Would greatly appreciate any feedback on the matter. Thank you!

TL;DR: Planed trip to Aus in >4 months. Husband applied for subclass 600 visa, has 2 DUIs on record, was sentenced 12 months jail time though only had to serve a few weekends. Is his visa automatically going to get declined, or is there hope?