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Marriage Amendment Regulations 1 and 2 of 2009

Attorney-General’s Department

In 2009, two sets of amendments were made to the Marriage Celebrant program administered by the Attorney-General’s Department. These changes increased the level of qualification required for registration as a new marriage celebrant to a Certificate IV level; and amended the delivery of compulsory professional development for marriage celebrants.  A Regulation Impact Statement (RIS) was required for these changes but was not prepared. As a result, a Post‑implementation Review (PIR) has been prepared in line with the Government’s best practice regulation process. While the number of new celebrant registrations per year has fallen since the introduction of the Certificate IV in Celebrancy as the minimum qualification, there has still been an overall increase in the number of marriage celebrants available to marrying couples, from 8,546 in 2009 to 10,509 in 2012.  The PIR notes that it is too soon to know the impact of the requirement to have a Certificate IV in Celebrancy on the overall marriage celebrant industry, as the requirement did not affect existing marriage celebrants. The PIR also highlighted that while the units for the Certificate IV in Celebrancy provide aspiring celebrants with appropriate skills and training to conduct marriage celebrancy work, there were some inconsistencies with the quality of training being offered.  The PIR is not related to the introduction of cost recovery for marriage celebrants from 1 July 2013. A RIS was previously prepared in 2011 for the decision to introduce cost recovery. The PIR was prepared by the Attorney-General’s Department and was assessed as adequate by the Office of Best Practice Regulation.