Recognition of same-sex unions in Tasmania

Tasmania's Relationships Act 2003 provided for registration and recognition of a type of registered partnership in two distinct categories: Significant Relationships and Caring Relationships. The same Act also amended 73 pieces of legislation to provide registered partners with nearly all of the rights offered to married couples within the state. Furthermore, since July 2009, these relationships are recognised at federal level, providing couples with almost all of the federal rights and benefits of marriage. The legislation came into effect on 1 January 2004. In September 2010, the Parliament of Tasmania approved legislation to recognize same-sex unions performed outside Tasmania as significant relationships.^[1][2][3][4]

Significant relationships

Both same-sex and opposite-sex couples can register a Significant Relationship if both are unrelated, unmarried adults living in Tasmania.

Caring relationships

Likewise, two adults residing in Tasmania, related or not, can register a Caring Relationship if one provides the other with domestic support and personal care. The parties cannot be married to each other, cannot be in an existing significant or caring relationship, and neither can be receiving payment for the care of the other either from employment or government departments.

Rights and benefits

Both types of relationships provide some rights in the following areas:^[5]

• Superannuation (pension/retirement benefits)
• Taxation
• Insurance
• Health Care
• Hospital Visitation
• Wills
• Property Division
• Employment Conditions (such as parenting and bereavement leave)

Adoption, surrogacy and parenting rights

Same-sex couples can be assessed to be adoptive parents of children relinquished by other people (this is known as the full joint adoption process). However, they may adopt their partner's child or children they already care for in some circumstances.^[6]

Under the Status of Children Act 1974 (section 10C) ^[7] same-sex partners of women who give birth to children conceived through sperm donation, IVF or other artificial reproductive technology will be presumed to be the child's other parent or co-mother in the same way as male partners of heterosexual women since 1.1.2004 (when the Relationships Act 2003 ^[8] commenced). Lesbian co-mothers who went under IVF can have both female names on the birth cirtificate so they can access the same rights and duties for their children (such as medical or hospital forms, education processes, access to entitlements, etc.). The legislation on parentage from IVF is retrospective (meaning the laws apply for co-mothers even before the law went into effect) as currently in the rest of Australia at a state, territory and federal level.

Also under the Adoption Act 1988 (section 29) ^[9] for a birth-mother's same-sex partner to adopt any children she has through fertility treatment under the stepchild adoption provision.^[6]

In 2012, Tasmania passed two pieces of legislation to legally allow altruistic surrogacy. The two laws are called the Surrogacy Act No 34 and the Surrogacy (Consequential Amendments) Act No 31^[10][11] Proposed altruistic surrogacy legislation was drafted and passed by both houses of the Tasmanian parliament - only after a review of the Surrogacy Contracts Act 1993 No 4^[12][13] and after an ongoing community consultation process. Under the altruistic surrogacy legislation, the surrogate must be at least 25 years old and it cannot be her first pregnancy. The new altruistic surrogacy laws are due to come into effect on 1 January 2013.^[10]

In 2013, Tasmania became the fourth jurisdiction in Australia to allow a same-sex couples full joint adoption legal rights (joining with New South Wales, Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory).^[14][15]

Recognition from other jurisdictions of Australia

Partnerships that are registered in Tasmania are not automatically recognised in most parts of Australia when travelling or moving interstate. Since being elected in 2007, the then current Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, had been encouraging all states to create relationship registers identical to Tasmania's model in order to create nationwide uniformity and consistent rights, while at the same time not supporting anything that appears too similar to marriage. The following jurisdictions currently recognise Tasmanian registered partnerships since 2012:

• Australian Capital Territory (civil union - was civil partnership)
• New South Wales (registered partnership)
• Queensland (Australia) (registered partnership - was civil partnership)

As of 21 October 2014, Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria advised that Victorian statute law does not recognize the registered relationships of any other jurisdiction, including Tasmania.

The Australian Commonwealth Government also recognises a Tasmanian registered partnership as a "de facto relationship" under federal law. De facto couples, whether same-sex or opposite-sex, are entitled to nearly all of the federal rights of marriage since 1 July 2009.

In September 2010, the Tasmanian parliament passed legislation to recognize out-of-state same-sex unions as a significant relationships.^[1][2][3][4]

Registration

Applications for Significant or Caring Relationships can be registered in person or by mail by filing an application for a Deed of Relationship with the Tasmanian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages in Hobart.

Government plan for legalizing same-sex marriage

In August 2012 Tasmanian premier Lara Giddings announced that Tasmania would pass new laws allowing same-sex couples to marry.^[16] However, although the same-sex marriage bill passed 13-11 in the lower house, the Legislative Council rejected the bill 6-8 on 27 September 2012.^[17]

See also

• LGBT rights in Australia
• Recognition of same-sex unions in Australia

References

External links

• Tasmanian Registry of Births, Deaths, and Marriages
• Foreign recognition of registered Tasmanian relationships
• Text of the Tasmanian Relationships Act 2003
• Partners Task Force for Gay and Lesbian Couples: "Relationships Act: The Tasmanian Approach"
• Relationships Tasmania