V01 Peak body?

The Attorney General's Department has invited representatives of celebrant association's to a meeting on 16 October 2008 in Canberra, to discuss establishing a peak body or a more unified collective representation of marriage celebrants.

All marriage celebrants would do well to take seriously what is happening in this forum. After all. it will be the outcomes of meetings such as these, that will shape our futures as marriage celebrants, and those who walk in our footsteps.

How many association members have been consulted by their Committee and/ or its representative on their views about a "peak body" ? How it might be formulated ? What would be its role ? How would it set its priorities ?

Will such a 'peak body' end up acting more as a semi-quasi arm of government to put in more controls over us?

Or will the 'peak body' represent and protect marriage celebrants needs and interests in performing their duties as is implied with a "more unified collective representation of marriage celebrants" ?

How can an association committee's truly represent the interests of their members, if they do not actively seek their views?

How can these association's represent the views of all marriage celebrants, when a large proportion of marriage celebrants do not belong to any association representing marriage celebrants ?

In many ways, the 2003 changes have tried to "marry" two fundamentally different views of the role of marriage celebrant.

Originally marriage celebrants were appointed as a form of specialised JP to provide an important and respected community service. The government set the fee, celebrants were not able to advertise or seek any extra remuneration for their work other than a mileage fee if the wedding was over 30 kms from their home. Numbers were appointed per head of population so competition was evenly distributed across the country and numbers of weddings per celebrant worked out at around 20 to 25 pa.

Since the 2003 changes, marriage celebrants have been redefined independent self-employed marriage celebrants, appointed on the basis of one TAFE unit equivalent, in such numbers that competition is not evenly distributed per head of population, and at such a low level that the average number of weddings per celebrant has now around 9 per annum and dropping. Survival is at the whim of the market and failure viewed a problem of the individual celebrant rather than of the system.

Expectations of image, personality, flexibility, commercial competence, performance and service delivery have been placed upon civil and non-aligned religious celebrants in the form of the Code of Practice and other legal requirements that have not been applied to main stream religious or registry office celebrants.

On top of this, the commonwealth government is now requiring that celebrant associations "marry" each other in some sort of polygamist arrangement, because the AG has determined that office will one speak with one group! May show how small we are as a lobby group that the government can take this stand. One could assume there would be an uproar if other sectors were told that the government would only speak with one peak body, and ignore the rest!

The foundations of the civil celebrant program were based upon the principles of democratic civil rights, that people had the right to be married by their peers in a setting of their choice.

If the marrying public are to be served well by civil marriage celebrants, then the "peak body" or "more unified collective representation of marriage celebrants" likewise needs to be established upon democratic principles.

There has been some talk of the bigger associations getting more votes, of smaller associations having to amalgamate, or not being represented at all if their numbers are not high enough ....

Some celebrants belong to several associations purely to gain listings - in other words as a advertising expense.

So does not that artificially inflate some associations numbers ?

Let us all encourage our representatives to work for solutions that

• respect all celebrant associations - big and small
• encourage diversity of opinions and approaches that respect the variety of groups in our Australian community
• will ensure wide consultation with marriage celebrants and support of their concerns and needs.

To ensure our associations are truly representative, and thus a "peak body" or "more unified collective representation of marriage celebrants" .

it is important that all marriage celebrants take an active role in
1. joining a celebrant association, and
2. requiring their elected committee members to both consult with, and report back to, their members on the issues affecting their members' roles as marriage celebrants.

Otherwise, the "peak" may not represent its base at all!

Rona Goold
Robertson NSW