Cost Recovery for Increased Professionalism:

1. Overall Comments:

In February this year, CoCA presented its submission on Cost Recovery with the AG Department’s stated aim of Increased Professionalism.

Basically CoCA aimed to modify the effect of the 2003 Model of Appointment – basically an “Open Market: Just a Small Business Model” – to modify the current model towards a “Professional” model.

This current model is based on the premise, that unlike religious celebrants, civil celebrants are just small businesses. A business model supports anyone wanting to start a new small business has having the right to do so, and the premise that it is not the role of government to regulate our Australian free market economy in anything but a minimal way.

This ‘small business’ model therefore:

• does not see it as appropriate to limit numbers of civil celebrants (the open market is supposed to regulate numbers)
• does not see ‘conflict of interest’ as a ‘real’ issue to be addressed as “buyer beware” and “all’s fair in business”
• sees it as the responsibility of the individual to do their research and if they fail, then the government has no responsibility for that
• views the civil celebrant as simply a part of the wedding industry

This is not the model the Marriage Act 1961 applies to the religious celebrants.

Religious celebrants are appointed on a “celebrant as a professioal” model. In fact, classically there were only three professions: Divinity, Medicine, and Law.

CoCA February Submission highlighted this as out first point in our First Recommendation on Guiding Principles “A professional model of celebrancy as “professional ceremonialists” is the most appropriate model upon which to base the future development of celebrancy ” and supported this position with reference to our Appendix 7 which stated Div 1 Sub Div A Sect 31 of the Marriage Act.

This section of the Marriage Act 1961 supports

·      limiting the numbers of religious celebrants on the needs of their community in the locality where the celebrant resides
·      appointing only religious celebrants who are more than “part-time” religious celebrants
·      ensuring the person is “Fit and Proper” which includes the concept that a minister of religion is not operating as “just a business”

Div 1 Sub Div A Sect 31 31 Applicant may be refused registration in certain circumstances (1) A Registrar to whom an application for registration under this Subdivision is made may refuse to register the applicant if, in the opinion of the Registrar: (a) there are already registered under this Subdivision sufficient ministers of religion of the denomination to which the applicant belongs to meet the needs of the denomination in the locality in which the applicant resides; (b) the applicant is not a fit and proper person to solemnize marriages; or (c) the applicant is unlikely to devote a substantial part of his or her time to the performance of functions generally performed by a minister of religion.

Therefore all recommendations in the CoCA submissions focused on how to “increase Professionalism” (the primary aim of Cost Recovery) based on this “professional” model of celebrancy in the most cost efficient and effective manner (in line with the Department of Finance Cost Recovery Guidelines).

The Coalition of Celebrant Associations CoCA is disappointed to find that approx 90% of its 13 recommendations (10 no; 2 partially; 1 yes) have not been acted upon, especially as the website upgrade had already been decided and was announced at the May 2011 CoCA-AGD meeting.

In fact, it appeared that at the meeting of the 20th August 2012 that the Marriage Law and Celebrant Section (MLCS) had not considered many of CoCA’s recommendations seriously. If that had been the case, then detailed questions would have been asked in the six months the MLCS had our Submission, as to how CoCA envisaged those recommendations working in a practical way.

See Appendix 1.