Page 1627 - Week 05 - Thursday, 11 May 2006
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
I refer back to what I said earlier in relation to their revised opinion. The advice continues:
Section 19 Civil unions under corresponding laws etc
(1) A marriage solemnised in a foreign country that cannot be recognised as a marriage in Australia because of the Marriage Act (Cwlth), section 88EA is a civil union for the purpose of territory law.
Note the Marriage Act 1961, s 88EA provides as follows:
A union solemnised in a foreign country between:
(a) a man and another man; or
(b) a woman and another woman;
must not be recognised as a marriage in Australia.
3. The Bill sets out in its preamble that it is intended to allow 2 people who choose not to be married, or would not be entitled to be married, to enter into a legally recognised relationship that is to be treated under Territory law in the same way as marriage. It thus applies not only to same-sex relationships but to heterosexual relationships as well. It is very similar to the Marriage Act 1961 in that it establishes a detailed framework of civil unions in a way that parallels the legal regime of marriage. For example, the Bill specifies who may and who may not enter into a civil union (ss7 and 8); it creates notice and consent requirements (ss9 and 10); it establishes a legal regime for termination of civil unions (ss12, 13 and 14); and contains a range of supporting and related provisions that support the institution of civil unions (eg voidness: s15; evidence of identity and age: s17; service of notices: s18; status of civil unions under foreign laws: s19; offences etc: ss20-23). The Bill then also amends the other legislation that is listed in Schedule 1 of the Bill.
The advice then deals with the commonwealth Marriage Act:
4. The Marriage Act 1961, as amended, defines marriage in s5(1) in the following terms:
“Marriage means the union of a man and woman to the exclusion of all others, voluntarily entered into for life”.
5. For present purposes, the other relevant provisions of the Marriage Act are ss88B(4) and 88EA dealing with the recognition of foreign marriages. These provisions state as follows:
• s88B(4) “To avoid doubt, in this Part (including s88E) marriage has the same meaning given by subsection (5)(1)”.
• s88E(A) Certain unions are not marriages “A union solemnised in a foreign country between:
a man and another man; or
a woman and another woman;
must not be recognised as a marriage in Australia.
C Inconsistency between Civil Unions Bill and Marriage Act?
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .