EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

 

Select Legislative Instrument 2010 No. 169

 

 

Subject- Marriage Act 1961

 

Marriage Amendment Regulations 2010 (No. 1)

 

 

Section 120 of the Marriage Act 1961 (the Act) provides, in part, that the Governor-General may make regulations prescribing all matters required or permitted by the Act to be prescribed or necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.

 

The Regulations make amendments that prospectively remove one of the currently available exemptions for marriage celebrants from professional development provided for in the Marriage Regulations 1963 (the Principal Regulations) while protecting those marriage celebrants who have taken action to access the exemption to date.

 

Commonwealth-registered marriage celebrants are required to undertake no less than five hours professional development each registration year. This is one of only three statutory obligations of such marriage celebrants.

 

The Principal Regulations support a new direction for the delivery of professional development to Commonwealth-registered marriage celebrants aligned with the Certificate IV in Celebrancy, the minimum qualification required for registration as a marriage celebrant. The policy intention is to ensure that marriage celebrants continually update their knowledge and skills through undertaking recent quality training.

 

An exemption from professional development is included in the Principal Regulations. The exemption provides that a marriage celebrant, who completes the Certificate IV in Celebrancy or equivalent university qualification, is exempt from undertaking professional development for the registration year in which he or she completed the qualification and the two subsequent years.

 

Some entities in the training industry are offering various options to obtain the Certificate IV in Celebrancy to qualify for the exemption from professional development. These options may or may not involve a marriage celebrant actually undertaking recent training.

 

The exemption acknowledges the effort required by marriage celebrants, or aspiring marriage celebrants, to complete training in the units of the full Certificate IV in Celebrancy or equivalent university qualification and the fact that a marriage celebrant has undertaken recent training. It was the intention that the actual undertaking of the recent training would allow a marriage celebrant access to the exemption from professional development.

 

The interpretation of the exemption by some entities and what training would qualify for the exemption has caused concern within the marriage celebrant community. As the amendments support and maintain the intention of professional development, a formal process of consultation with stakeholders was not undertaken.

 

To protect those marriage celebrants who have taken action to enrol in options provided by some training entities in reliance on the current exemption, the amendments provide that, to obtain the exemption from professional development, a person must have enrolled in the Certificate IV in Celebrancy, or equivalent university qualification, before 1 July 2010. It is not necessary to have completed the qualification by that date. This will ensure that those marriage celebrants (or aspiring marriage celebrants) who have enrolled in a Certificate IV in Celebrancy that may or may not involve undertaking recent training can complete that qualification and obtain the exemption.

 

The amendments also require evidence of enrolment in the Certificate IV in Celebrancy before 1 July 2010 to be provided to the Registrar of Marriage Celebrants. The evidence required is not prescriptive, for example, a certified copy of the enrolment receipt or other document that shows enrolment in the Certificate IV in Celebrancy before 1 July 2010. To ensure that information about the amendments is properly and widely disseminated from the commencement date of the amending regulations, marriage celebrants are given six weeks from 1 July 2010 to submit evidence of their enrolment to the Registrar, that is, before 14 August 2010. This ensures that those who have enrolled in a course prior to the commencement of the Regulations can obtain the exemption and not be disadvantaged.

 

As a consequence of the effective removal of the exemption from professional development for those who have not enrolled in the Certificate IV in Celebrancy before 1 July 2010, a mechanism for marriage celebrants registered late in the registration year to be exempt from fulfilling their professional development obligations for the remaining few weeks of that registration year is included in the Regulations. For example, it may not be feasible for a marriage celebrant who is registered in the last quarter of a particular registration year to undertake professional development in that registration year.

 

Details of the Regulations are set out in the Attachment.

 

The Regulations are a legislative instrument for the purpose of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003.

 

The Regulations commence on 1 July 2010.

 

The Office of Best Practice Regulation’s Preliminary Assessment checklists were used to determine that there was a low impact and compliance cost on business.

 

 

ATTACHMENT

 

DETAILS OF THE MARRIAGE AMENDMENT REGULATIONS 2010 (No. 1)

 

 

Regulation 1 – Name of Regulations

 

This regulation provides that the title of the Regulations is the Marriage Amendment Regulations 2010 (No. 1).

 

Regulation 2 – Commencement

 

This regulation provides for the Regulations to commence on 1 July 2010.

 

Regulation 3 – Amendment of Marriage Regulations 1963

 

This regulation provides that the Marriage Regulations 1963 (the Principal Regulations) are amended as set out in Schedule 1.

 

Schedule 1 – Amendments commencing on the day after registration

 

Item [1] – Regulation 37F, definition of registered training organisation

 

Item 1 substitutes a new definition of ‘registered training organisation’ to define that term as having the same meaning given in subsection 3(1) of the Skilling Australia’s Workforce Act 2005. Thus, ‘registered training organisation’ is defined as an organisation that is registered by a training recognition authority under a law of a state as an organisation that is qualified to deliver training or conduct assessments, or both; and to issue nationally recognised qualifications in accordance with the Australian Quality Training Framework. This is a technical amendment that updates the current definition of ‘registered training organisation’ in the Principal Regulations.

 

Item [2] – Subregulation 37M(6)

 

Item 2 substitutes existing subregulation 37M(6) with new subregulation 37M(6).

 

New subregulation 37M(6) provides that a marriage celebrant need not comply with their professional development obligations for a particular registration year, as set out in subregulation 37M(4), if paragraph 37M(6)(a) or 37M(6)(b) applies.

 

New paragraph 37M(6)(a) provides that the subregulation applies if:

 

(i) the marriage celebrant has completed a formal course of training, either before or after the person is registered as a marriage celebrant, in a registration year (new subparagraph 37M(6)(a)(i)). A ‘formal course of training’ is defined in regulation 37F of the Principal Regulations as a Certificate IV in Celebrancy or an equivalent university qualification delivered in accordance with any specified requirements in the Principal Regulations; and

 

(ii) the registration year is the registration year in which the qualification is awarded or the first or second registration year after the stated registration year (new subparagraph 37M(6)(a)(ii)); and

 

(iii) the marriage celebrant enrolled in the formal course of training before 1 July 2010 (new subparagraph 37M(6)(a)(iii)); and

 

(iv) the marriage celebrant provides evidence of the enrolment to the Registrar before 14 August 2010 (new subparagraph 37M(6)(a)(iv)).

 

These amendments remove the exemption from professional development for those who did not enrol in the Certificate IV in Celebrancy (or equivalent university qualification) before 1 July 2010.

 

New paragraph 37M(6)(b) provides that the Registrar may grant an exemption from professional development if:

 

(i) the Registrar is satisfied that because of the date a marriage celebrant is registered, it would not be feasible for the marriage celebrant to complete professional development required by subregulation 37M(4) of the Principal Regulations for that registration year (new
subparagraph 37M(6)(b)(i)); or

 

(ii) before the end of a registration year, a marriage celebrant seeks an exemption from undertaking professional development for the registration year by applying in writing to the Registrar of Marriage Celebrants, the marriage celebrant does not have to undertake the professional development required by subregulation 37M(4) of the Principal Regulations for that registration year (new subparagraph 37M(6)(b)(ii)).

 

New subparagraph 37M(6)(b)(ii) maintains one of the existing exemptions from professional development in the Principal Regulations.

 

Item [3] – Subregulation 37M(7)

 

This amendment is a technical amendment that substitutes the reference to ‘paragraph 6(b)’ with a reference to ‘subparagraph (6)(b)(ii)’ as a consequence of new subregulation 37M(6) being inserted in item 2. Revised subregulation 37M(7) in the Principal Regulations continues to require the Registrar to be satisfied that granting the exemption sought by a marriage celebrant pursuant to new subparagraph 37M(6)(b)(ii) is justified because of exceptional circumstances.