A member asked for help with the Queensland BDM wanting more info on parents.
Here’s what I asked of the Queensland Attorney-General:
There is a discrepancy between advice provided by the Qld BDM and the Commonwealth Marriage Law and Celebrants Section of the Attorney-General’s office that I would like to raise with you today.
I’m hearing a number of stories from Queensland marriage celebrants, of parents being listed on the notice of intended marriage differently to the party’s birth certificate or not at all, and the Queensland Births Deaths and Marriages pushing back on the marrying celebrant and refusing to register the marriage because they can see the birth certificate in their own records, and they registrar knows there are parents listed, or different parents from what has been written on the NOIM.
I went on to explain that the information in the current Commonwealth Guidelines to the Marriage Act of 1961 states that parties should list their parents using the names as they know them by, and that we are not required to sight evidence of the parents’ names.
The AG has come back off holidays and responded, basically saying, touch cookies.
The registrar has the discretion to require further information and clarification.
I guess my advice would be that if you strongly believe that the request is unwarranted, then you can push back on the request, but I’d be looking for a reply from Sarah in the comments section soon.
Surely if both parents were ‘Unknown’ a celebrant would question this and suggest a birth certificate should be sought. Also explaining to the couple the legal consequences for signing a document stating incorrect information.
In the end, we cannot be held responsible for information supplied by a couple that is not legally required for us to sight or document. Can we? Why wouldn’t BDM pursue the couple if there is a chance that they did not complete the Notice truthfully?
Hi Jacqui! Apologies for not answering this before now. The Guidelines suggest that if a party wants to write Unknown on the NOIM, they’re allowed to do that, and it’s not for us to question (although I would always make the argument that this is a legal document and should be accurate, penalties, blah blah). We cannot be held responsible for information supplied by the couple, you’re absolutely right; it’s their statement, not ours. The problem here is that BDM doesn’t have the couple’s contact details; we have them, and we can’t give them to BDM without their express permission due to privacy legislation. So that unfortunately leaves us as piggy in the middle.