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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 10 Hansard (25 September) . . Page.. 3432 ..

The Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Bill 1997 is the result of an agreement between States and Territories to have uniform laws about recording births, deaths and marriages. That agreement was reached through the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General. The model legislation agreed on was drafted in consultation with Registrars from all States and Territories and has now been introduced in Victoria, New South Wales, the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia.

Mobility of the Australian population means that many people are in the position of living in a State or Territory other than the one in which they were born or married. Families may have children born in 2 or 3 different jurisdictions. The ACT community is particularly affected by this mobility. Distance and differences in the law can cause problems for people who have to obtain documents such as marriage or birth certificates from interstate. The aim of the uniform laws is to ensure that recording of births, deaths and marriages information is treated similarly across Australia.

Another effect of the uniform laws will be that States and Territories will be able to enter agreements for births, deaths and marriages Registrars to act as agents for each other. When those agreements are put in place it will be possible to obtain interstate certificates through the local Registry.

The uniform legislation carries with it a uniform policy for access to information kept in the Register. This means that decisions about requests for searches of the Registers will be assessed against the same criteria in each of the States and Territories. The uniform policy will provide the public with consistent administration and will make interstate agency agreements workable. This access policy will be available from the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registry on request.

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