Coalition of Celebrant Associations

Australia’s Peak Celebrant Body

Cost Recovery - Updates and issues

Marriage Celebrants Programme Regulator Performance Framework 2015-16 Self-assessment Report MARRIAGE CELEBRANTS PROGRAMME REGULATOR PERFORMANCE FRAMEWORK 1 JULY 2016 – 30 JUNE 2017 The Attorney-General’s Department (department) registers and regulates marriage celebrants under Part IV, Division 1, Subdivision C of the Marriage Act 1961 (the Marriage Act) through the Commonwealth Marriage Celebrants Programme (the Programme). As at 30 June 2017, there were 8,641 marriage celebrants being regulated under the Programme, which remains largely consistent with previous years. The Australian Government has committed to reducing the cost of unnecessary or inefficient regulation imposed on individuals, businesses and community organisations, such as marriage celebrants,…
Posted March 27th, 2014 | UNCLASSIFIED Dear all Samantha Byng, A/g Assistant Secretary, Marriage and Intercountry Adoption Branch, Australian Government Attorney-General’s Department, has just informed the CoCA  Chairperson, Robyn Caine, that Amendment Bills 2014 have passed.This  legislation implements cost recovery and other administrative changes to the Commonwealth Marriage Celebrants Program.
Department  of Finance and Deregulation Governance and Resource Management Group Resource Management Branch John Gorton Building, King Edward Terrace, PARKES ACT 2600 9th August 2013 Dear Charging Policy Team Thank you for the opportunity to comment and be involved in the Stakeholders Consultative groups. Due to time constraints it has not been possible to comment at the level of detail we would have wished to. However we offer the following comments based upon our experience, which we believe is a relevant case study, due to its complexity and the ignorance of our group of stakeholders to the Government’s Cost Recovery…
Attachment 1 - Australian Government Cost Recovery Guidelines It is always difficult to put aside materials that have been development and in essence start with a blank page. However as a consequence of the Stakeholder consultations, perhaps a half-day workshop to do just that could result in ensuring key elements, that maybe have been missed or treated minimally, are identified and included as part of a systematic approach to Cost Recovery. Sometimes it is difficult to define the difference between objectives and strategies. Our observation is that if its goals and objectives were more clearly defined then the processes would…
DOWNLOAD: Cost-Recovery-Templates-A2.pdf
Posted April 21st, 2014 |  As most Commonwealth Marriage Celebrants would know, the  Coalition of  Celebrant Associations (CoCA) Inc opposed the introduction of an annual fee on only Commonwealth registered marriage celebrants. Basically CoCA examined the proposed services and the evidence for their introduction, and found no evidence to support the need for singling out one group of marriage celebrants to receive staff-intensive regulatory services. Only two invalid marriages in 15 years where celebrant error was sited as a possible cause – is a stunningly low statistic – and interesting as one celebrant was a religious one who would not…
The issues behind these Bills are complex.What looks like simple 'cost recovery' will ONLY leave approx $200,000 in the Attorney-General's Department's budget for all the legal work related to the Marriage Act 1961. This is a miniscule amount for such an important national over-sighting function. The remainder of $1.8 million (PLUS $0.6 million extra) is to be recovered by independent Commonwealth Celebrants with the annual registration fee as proposed by these Bills. The Marriage Act 1961 was introduced to bring together all the states and territories laws in place at the time.It is a simple common sense piece of legislation,…
The Coalition of Celebrant Associations – CoCA Submission on the Cost Recovery as Proposed by the Marriage Law and Celebrant Section – Consultation Paper August 2012 Summary  of Recommendations: RECOMMENDATION  1: That CoCA and Attorney General’s Department continue to work together to build stronger consultation processes so that the Coalition can work in partnership with the Marriage Law and Celebrant Section in developing the Commonwealth Marriage Celebrant Program. RECOMMENDATION 2: That an Independent Review or Inquiry be established to ensure fairness and equity for all marrying couples and  their celebrants. RECOMMENDATION 3: That the Department implements a Moratorium on all new appointments…
Coalition of Celebrant Associations Inc.  Rona Goold Secretary                                                                                                                                                 P.O. Box 3113Robertson N.S.W 2577Phone: 02 4885 2393
Mis-information about Celebrant Appointments and its relationship to ongoing or temporary status).Denial of the ongoing 'lifetime' appointments / authorisation of Sub-division C celebrants.There appears to be an attempt by some  celebrants to re-write history. For Commonwealth Marriage Celebrants, before 2003 there was no Registrar of Marriage Celebrants for Sub-Division C celebrants and so the term "registered" was not used. Prior to 2003, Section 39 of the Marriage Act 1961 read as follows:---(1.) a person who, under the law of the State or Territory,has the function of registering marriages solemnised in the State or Territory may solemnise marriages in that State…
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