Commonwealth Consolidated Acts Commonwealth Consolidated Acts(1) A document purporting to be either the original or a certified copy of a certificate, entry or record of a marriage alleged to have been solemnise d in, or under the law of, a foreign country and purporting to have been issued by:
(a) in the case of a marriage alleged to have been solemnise d in a foreign country--an authority of that country or of that part of the country in which the marriage was allegedly solemnise d; or
(b) in the case of a marriage alleged to have been solemnise d under the law of a foreign country--an authority of that country;
is, for all purposes, prima facie evidence of the facts stated in the document and of the validity of the marriage to which the document relates.
(2) Subsection ( 1) does not apply to or in relation to a document if it is proved that the authority of the foreign country or of the part of a foreign country by which the document purports to have been issued was not, at the time of issue, a competent authority.
(3) In subsection ( 2), competent authority means:
(a) in relation to a foreign country:
(i) any authority that is prescribed in relation to that country by regulations made for the purposes of this paragraph; or
(ii) any other authority that is competent, under the law in force in that country, to issue the original or a certified copy of a certificate, entry or record of a marriage solemnise d in, or under the law of, that country; and
(b) in relation to a part of a foreign country:
(i) any authority that is prescribed in relation to that part of that country by regulations made for the purposes of this paragraph; or
(ii) any other authority that is competent, under the law in force in that part of that country, to issue the original or a certified copy of a certificate, entry or record of a marriage solemnise d in that part of that country.