Marriage Celebrants E-bulletin December 2002
Welcome to the December 2002 e-bulletin.
The contents of e-bulletins apply equally to civil and non-aligned religious marriage celebrants authorised by the Attorney-General.
We encourage you to distribute this e-bulletin to your celebrant peers, members and/or to other parties likely to have an interest. Permission to re-print any part of this e-bulletin is provided subject to your agreement that its contents are not edited or changed.
This e-bulletin is made available on the internet as soon as possible after its distribution.
While we will continue to distribute the regular e-bulletin via email in the immediate future, over time, interested parties should access the internet version direct where regular updates will be posted without the necessity for duplication through email messages.
Notice of Intended Marriage Form
You will now be aware that a new Notice of Intended Marriage form came into effect on 5 November 2002. It was not possible to fit the new material needed onto 2 pages but the new form has been designed so all the information to be supplied by the couple, including all signatures, are still on 2 pages. A professional typesetter was engaged to design the form and BDMs were consulted on new content.
The new form is available from the Attorney-General's website. To access the new form go the Attorney-General's Department website at: www.ag.gov.au. Then click "here" to take you to the new site. Then select "Marriage Celebrants" from the menu of topics in the left-hand panel on the page and then select "Notice of Intended Marriage Form".
Please note that it is NOT necessary to print the form onto blue paper. White paper will suffice (or any colour paper available to the celebrant at the time). It is important to print all 4 pages. The most important information is on pages 2, 3 and 4. The new form from Ausinfo is printed on A3 paper, folded down the middle. This is why it may seem that Page 1 has very little information on it, but the form has been designed so that all the information to be filled out by the couple is contained on pages 3 and 4 and the celebrant will be able to tear off these pages to send to the BDM. It is also very important that the couple read the notes on page 2, particularly the Privacy Notes, before they fill out the form.
The new form is now available through the Ausinfo shops and by mail order.
Stocks of the old, blue Notice have been withdrawn from sale.
Notaries Public
A number of queries have been raised about notaries public witnessing NOIMs overseas. These have included requests for a definition of 'notary public'. 'Notary public' is an office that has been in existence for many hundreds of years. They are to be found in every country and are essential for the continued conduct of international government and private business. There is no definition of the term in the Marriage Amendment Act 2002 because it is such a well recognised office internationally that there was no need to do so.
A summary of the position is that a notary public is a legal officer with specific authority to witness legal documents usually with an official seal. The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines the position as being a person publicly authorised to draw up or attest contracts and perform other formalities.
It is not possible for us to provide a list of all notaries. Notaries public will be listed in telephone directories overseas and are readily available. Any law office would be able to direct a person to one (for example to witness and sign documents for businesses overseas).
It is the responsibility of a party to a marriage to locate an appropriate witness overseas and not the responsibility of the celebrant. Most couples overseas will be able to visit an Australian Embassy, High Commission or Consulate to have the NOIM witnessed.
Employees of the Commonwealth or the Australian Trade Commission
It is not possible for us to comprehensively list all officers who can witness documents under the Consular Fees Act 1955. Couples wanting the NOIM witnessed when they are overseas only need to know that there are several officers in every Australian Embassy, High Commission or Consulate who will be able to witness documents under the Consular Fees Act 1955.
Overseas passports
There are still many questions being asked about why the new form says 'overseas' passport. There has been no change to the introduction of overseas passports as an acceptable form of evidence of place and date of birth since the Bill was first circulated to Associations and Registrars of Births, Deaths and Marriages in September 2001. Overseas passports are simply an additional option to establish date and place of birth over and above what was previously set out in the Marriage Act (that is a birth certificate or extract or a statutory declaration) and deals with the particular problem that people who were born overseas in countries from which they cannot obtain their birth certificate may have in establishing date and place of birth. The information letter sent to all celebrants in October explained the changes in Schedule 2 of the Act and set out the rules for the use of overseas passports as evidence of birth. We have reproduced that part of the letter here, with some emphasis added to answer these questions.
A passport issued by the Government of an overseas country may be accepted as evidence of the date and place of birth of a party to a proposed marriage born outside Australia in the absence of a birth certificate or extract.
Persons born in Australia should still produce a birth certificate or extract.
So, the requirements for evidence of date and place of birth are:
- For a person born in Australia - a birth certificate or extract. It is very rare that a person born in Australia will find it impracticable to obtain a birth certificate or an extract of a birth certificate. In these rare instances, a statutory declaration stating why it is impracticable to obtain the certificate or extract and stating to the best of the person's knowledge and belief where and when they were born is acceptable.
- For a person born overseas - a birth certificate or a passport issued by a government of an overseas country, showing the date and place of the party's birth will be acceptable.
- Where a person has been born overseas does not have a birth certificate or a passport issued by the government of an overseas country, a statutory declaration is still acceptable.
Such declarations should only be used where the celebrant is satisfied that this is the only option left reasonably available.
Witnessing in Australia
There has been no change to the requirements for having a NOIM witnessed in Australia.
Ongoing Professional Development
The Department has sought input from civil and non-aligned religious marriage celebrants into the development of activity lists for ongoing professional development for marriage celebrants. There has been a good response and we are grateful for your input.
We are putting together a list of questions (and answers) arising from our request for input. This Q&A will be distributed in the coming weeks and we will send out a further draft for comments shortly.
Changes to the Appointment and Regulation of Marriage Celebrants
As advised in the letter sent to you recently, the changes to the Marriage Act which will affect the way that marriage celebrants are appointed and regulated will take effect in early 2003 on a date yet to be fixed.
We will write to each individual marriage celebrant closer to the date of effect concerning the changes and will provide a package of information to assist you to implement any necessary changes.