Coalition of Celebrant Associations

Australia’s Peak Celebrant Body

6 Natural Justice

Definition 15

English legal system doctrine that protects against arbitrary exercise of power by ensuring fair play. Natural justice is based on two fundamental rules: (1) Audi alteram partem (Latin for, hear the other side): no accused, or a person directly affected by a decision, shall be condemned unless given full chance to prepare and submit his or her case and rebuttal to the opposing party’s arguments; (2) Nemo judex in causa sua (Latin for, no man a judge in his own case): no decision is valid if it was influenced by any financial consideration or other interest or bias of the decision maker.  These principles apply to decisions of all governmental agencies and tribunals, and judgments of all courts, which may be declared to be of  having no effect (ultra vires) if found in contravention of natural justice. See also natural law and natural rights.

CoCA has a number of concerns that relate to the principle of natural justice. The Cost Recovery Guidelines appear to be based  upon the principle that changes should not unfairly be applied to the end-users without consultation and clear legal authority to do so etc.

For 30 years (1973 to 2003) Commonwealth Marriage Celebrants were appointed with the right to a life time appointment and no cost applied to the regulation of their services which were done on the same basis as the Recognised Religious Celebrants16

For 10 years (2003 to 2013)) Commonwealth Marriage Celebrants have been appointed subjected to a 5-year Review Process to encourage professionalism and
to de-register those celebrants who were not meeting their Regulatory Requirements under the amended Marriage Act 2003. No cost was applied to the Regulation of their services.

Therefore CoCA considers that it is against the principle of ‘natural justice’ to now apply a ONE year annual fee retrospectively to all celebrants appointed prior to the introduction of Cost Recovery planned to start July 1st 2013 and the failure to pay the said fee to result in instant suspension of the celebrant’s right to conduct marriages.

This measure will de-stabilise the sector and create more problems for the marrying public who often plan their marriage 18 months or more before the date they choose.
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