Strengthen family and community networks ....

Celebrate with Ceremony

Celebrate:

o Civility (being civilized - cooperation, compassion, care, courtesy, chivalry)

o Creativity (celebrate and encourage different talents and interests)

o Companionship (partnerships, family and friendships, groups)

o Citizenship (valuing justice –“a fair go”, free speech, diversity and community)

Use our CCN Forum . . . . . Register (free) THEN Click FORUMS!

Supporting civil and human rights and responsibilities
through ceremony in celebrations for healthy communities

Support Marriage Equality for Civil Celebrants and Civil Marriages

Lobby against the proposed changes to the Civil Marriage Celebrant Program: www.CelebrantsEquality.org.au

Join the Civil Celebrations Network Incorporated (CCN) Inc for $5 joining fee, and $10 pa annual membership fees, to support marriage equality - especially to remove religious discrimination against civil celebrants and discrimination against same sex couples.

All people, whether celebrants or not, are welcome to join our network if they support CCN Inc. objectives.

NOTE: Civil celebrants who join the CCN Inc may access Celebrant Group Insurance for $110 pa and Celebrant Group Copyright Licence Cover for $45. ACCN Celebrants may join the CCN Inc as part of their ACCN subscriptions for no extra costs.

CCN Inc position on the Proposed Celebrant Fee

The CCN Inc considers the "Professional Celebrant Fee and associated Compliance Strategy" as currently proposed by the Attorney General's Department :

will be Unsuccessful in meeting the stated objective of "increasing professionalism of marriage celebrants"
has No precedent for appointees having to fund their own government department
is Discriminatory
has Other options for both meeting the program objective and raising the funds

Unsuccessful in meeting stated objective

The strategy will NOT reduce the number of non-compliant celebrants overall, as the 10% removed will be replaced by 10+ % new inexperienced celebrants.
Compliance with Ongoing Professional Development is NO guarantee of increased knowledge or skills
Compliance with keeping one's contact details up-to-date is NO measure of competence as a marriage celebrant
Compliance with Sections 45 and 46 in a one off paper report does NOT necessarily translate into every ceremony conducted by the celebrant.
Compliance with Sections 45 and 46 is NO measure of the celebrants competence in designing and delivering a quality ceremony

No precedent
Other examples given of a registration fees requirement

do NOT relate to Appointees having to pay the salaries of Public Servants whose are funded by the tax payers to provide the service
do NOT fund a government section responsible for the administration of a Federal Act that applies to all Australians

Discriminatory

Recognised Religious Marriage Celebrants:

do NOT have any specific Marriage Act Training
do NOT have to say or have their couples say specific words as in Sections 45 and 46
do NOT have to attend 5 hours of annual OPD
do NOT have an average of more weddings than Commonwealth appointed marriage celebrants - in fact less (2 weddings pa)
do NOT have to adhere to a Code of Practice
do NOT have a better record of doing the paperwork and other legal tasks as required (In fact have a worse record than Civil Celebrants)
will NOT have to pay this fee to fund the Government section that oversees the whole Marriage Act

Other Options

For increasing professionalism - there are many strategies. Some examples are

raising training standards for appointment
requiring a standarised pre-appointment assessment of knowledge and skills funded by the applicant
introduce Cert IV units as part of OPD - optional
introducing assessment based strategies as part of OPD

For funding

require all 35,000 marriage celebrants to pay $ 150 pa as a fee to be registered on the AGD website so that ALL marriage celebrants are required to meet the same standards and/ or
require a marriage administrative fee for all marriages