V14 Won't this fee increase professionalism?

1. No overall increase in weddings nor experience

COMMENT:

A 10% decrease in numbers of celebrants, being replaced by more than 10  % of new, and thus totally inexperienced, as implied by the RIS, celebrants will not

• reduce the overall number of non-complying celebrants, nor

• result in any significant  increase in experience.

Even if 30% of independent celebrants were removed from the equation

• this would raise the number of weddings per year from 6.6 to  only 8.8 weddings per year ie. less than one per month

will not mean significantly more experience, to guarantee proper legal understanding and compliance as claimed.

In fact in 1999, the average number of weddings per celebrant was 32 weddings pa.

Even at this high 199 rate, only 4% of celebrants were able to make a weekly wage average from civil marriage celebrany.

To achieve this ratio of weddings per celebrant would require reducing the number of civil marriage celebrants by 80%. ie to 2,250 from the current 10.400 celebrants. 

Reference: See Some Celebrant Statistics from 1999

• comply with administrative requirements (give change of contact details within 30days)

• do not do their OPD - 5 hours pa untested activity

• adhere to sections 45 and 46 of the Marriage Act as strictly as the Marriage Law and Celebrant Section (MLCS)  of the AGD requires.

COMMENT:
There is no guarantee that compliance with the above, as assessed by the Department in a one-off review every five years, will translate into practical application by the marriage celebrant in the on-going performance of their duties.

• comply with administrative requirements (give change of contact details within 30days)

Ensure one's contact details are up-to-date is both a simple memory test and a basic test of professionalism for any worker, who has some Statutory Reporting requirements.

It may highlight some celebrants with dementia, some who are stresses with changes in their life circumstances, and some perhaps without a "professional" attitude.

However, this measure does note relate determines the quailty of the Marriage Ceremony nor necessarily to direct legal requirments for the registration of the marriage

• do not do their OPD (5 hours pa untested activity)

As this is an untested activity, there is no guarantee that the celebrant will in fact increase their knowledge or skills, nor if they do, that this will be translated into their wedding practice.

• adhere to sections 45 and 46 of the Marriage Act as strictly as the Marriage Law and Celebrant Section (MLCS)  of the AGD requires.

For 30 years, Civil Marriage Celebrant's marriages were not considered to be invalid because of failure of those celebrants to adhere to a strict "Words that mean the same as" rather than "Words to that effect". 

Nor were Civil Marriage Celebrant's marriages were considered invalid, when the Attorney General gave an exemption to such celebrants from the need to use Section 45 and 46.

Recognised Religious marriage celebrants are given full flexibility in their interpretation of Sections 45 and 46.

Confusingly, Marriage Law and Celebrant Section (MLCS)  of the AGD state they "can not provide legal advice", yet threaten to de-registered Commonwealth appointed Marriage Celebrants if they fail to do as the MLCS dictates as regards interpretation of Sections 45 and 46.

R Goold Chairperson
Civil Celebrations Network Incorporated.