A few weeks ago, 9 October to be exact, one of our members alerted me to a change on the NOIMs produced by the South Australian BDM’s online registration system. They had inserted a checkbox on page 5 that read “I confirm I met separately with each party before the marriage was solemnised to confirm they were entering into marriage voluntarily and freely.”
At first glance, this might look like a good and useful thing to add to the NOIM. It would be useful for us to have to check a box somewhere confirming we had those new separate meetings that are required by the changes to the Marriage Act from June 2024. We even talked about it at the MLCS/Associations meeting back in May, and I imagine it will be up for discussion again at tomorrow’s meeting.
The problem is that SA BDM went ahead and modified a legal form off their own bat, and that isn’t allowed. Section 119 of the Marriage Act 1961 says:
(1) The Minister may, in writing, approve a form for the purpose of a provision of this Act or the regulations. If the Minister approves a form, that form must be used [emphasis added].
Anyone other than the Minister can’t just go around changing legal forms prescribed under the Act because they feel like it. That’s not how this works. If we start allowing things like this to pass by the keeper, who knows what else will start happening.
I may be unpopular for this, but I wrote to MLCS about this issue and finally got a response today (13 November):
Thank you so much for alerting us to the inclusion of a checkbox on the NOIM by the South Australian registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages. As you correctly note, the NOIM can be modified only by the Minister, or the Minister’s delegate.
We have reached out to the BDM registry in South Australian and are advised it will be removed.
It is our job and our obligation to have these separate meetings. We should not need to be reminded by a checkbox on a form. Yes, we hope that one day soon the forms will be modified and such a checkbox included, but until then we need to be the professionals that we are and remember to do it ourselves.
