Review of Policy on Conflict of Interest (COI) and Benefit to Business (B2B) for Commonwealth Marriage Celebrants Last year the Attorney-General's Department foreshadowed a review of its Policy on Conflict of Interest (COI) and Benefit to Business (B2B) for authorisation or continued authorisation as a Commonwealth Marriage Celebrant. This subdivision of marriage celebrants comprises of 8134 independent civil marriage celebrants and 505 independent religious celebrants of non-aligned 467 religious groups and organisations. The Department released its final policy document in early October 2017. CoCA considers the review process to have been flawed for the following reasons:

Full Revised Guidelines can be downloaded from here

Before 2003, COI and Benefit to Business principles were strictly adhered to in line with those for the recognised religious celebrants.In fact when the Commonwealth Marriage Celebrant Program was established in 1973, the basis was in line with the principles that applied to Ministers of Religion under Subdivision A.That is the Attorney-General and his/her Department set a ratio of the numbers of civil celebrants per geographic region as there would not be unlimited numbers of Church Ministers ie they are proportional to community need set the fee to be charged as per the Churches (and BDMs) setting fees applied no…

The 2012 CoCA submission to the AGD regarding "increasing professionalism and the proposed annual fee" included a section related to Conflict of Interest and Benefits to Business. This was an attempt to clarify the underlying principles that increase the professionalism of celebrants in their marriage work. For full details see Appendix 5  "Conflict of Interest is a principle of concern in a profession, where the office-holder/professional has a duty of care: to put the client’s needs or some other authority’s needs before their own, to be able to offer impartial advice, and to not use the relationship developed in their other…

Marriage Act 1961 39C Entitlement to be registered as a marriage celebrant  (1) A person is only entitled to be registered as a marriage celebrant if the person is an individual and the Registrar of Marriage Celebrants is satisfied that the person: (a) is aged 18 years or over; and(b) has all the qualifications, and/or skills, determined in writing to be necessary by the Registrar in accordance with regulations made for the purposes of this paragraph; and(c) is a fit and proper person to be a marriage celebrant. (2) In determining whether the Registrar is satisfied that the person is…

ATTORNEY-GENERAL'S DEPARTMENT Family Law and Legal Assistance Division   01/4586 28February 2002 All Celebrant Representative Bodies CONFLICT OF INTEREST PROVISIONS I refer to the recent email exchange within the celebrant community about the conflict of interest provisions contained in the Marriage Amendment Bill 2002 (the Bill) . In determining whether a person is fit and proper to be a marriage celebrant: Section39C (2) (e)of the Bill provides that the Registrar must take into account whether the person has an actual or potential conflict of interest between his or her practice, or proposed practice as a marriage celebrant and his other…

Extracts from: The 2002 Explanatory Memorandum (The Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia House of Representatives, Marriage Amendment Bill 2002, Circulated by authority of the Attorney-General, the Honourable Daryl Williams AM QC MP) Ref: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/bill_em/mab2002175/memo1.html GENERAL OUTLINE The primary purpose of the Marriage Amendment Bill 2002 (‘the Bill’) is to give effect to the Government’s commitment to reform the Marriage Act 1961 (‘the Act’) as it relates to the Marriage Celebrants Program operated under subsection 39(2) of the Act. The Bill is the result of a four year consultative process. The Marriage Celebrants Program was established in 1973 to provide marrying…

In the 1997 to 2002 Consultations with marriage celebrants and the public, the basic rationale for change was to move celebrancy towards a self-regulating profession.In particular, it was stressed to the Associations that religious celebrants were required to do training to become a minister or priest and also to do contiuing professional devlelopment.The 5 hours or a day chosen as a minimum from the government perspective because the risk of invalidity of marriages is low.One basic requirement of professions is that the practitioners keep up to date with trends in their profession, new techniques and services and continue to improve…

Part A: Ongoing Professional Development for Marriage Celebrants Ongoing professional development (OPD) is intended to promote a high level of professionalism which should be balanced with the need to ensure that its administration and the cost of compliance for marriage celebrants are as efficient as possible.  The purpose of this part of the discussion paper is to set out options for possible future OPD arrangements for marriage celebrants to ensure that the requirement can be met by celebrants as cost-effectively as possible to achieve its purpose.  BackgroundSince 2003, the Marriage Act has required all Commonwealth-registered celebrants to undertake professional development activities…

Review of Ongoing Professional Development and Conflict of Interest and Benefit to Business Guidelines for Marriage CelebrantsIntroductionOngoing Professional Development and Conflict of Interest/Benefit to Business Guidelines for Marriage Celebrants (Australian Government Statistical Clearing House Approval Number: 02530-01)Thank you for taking the time to complete this survey by the Marriage Law and Celebrants Section in the  Attorney-General’s Department.Your feedback is important and will help us to efficiently and effectively regulate marriage celebrants. This survey will inform future arrangements for professional development and the conflict of interest/benefit to business rules for Commonwealth-registered marriage celebrants.This survey contains a section on OPD and a section on conflict…