Tasmania to recognise overseas same-sex marriages / civil partnerships

This media release was issued by the TGLRG on 29.9.10

Tasmania has become the first Australian state to recognise overseas same-sex marriages as part of a broader move to give legal standing to personal unions from interstate and overseas.

The Tasmanian Upper House today passed a State Government amendment to the Relationships Act allowing couples from interstate and overseas to be automatically recognised as partners in a Tasmanian Deed of Relationship (i.e. state civil partnership), reciprocating the recognition offered to Tasmanian Deeds of Relationship by some other Australian states and some other countries.

The amendment, passed without opposition, is the first in Australia to allow recognition of overseas same-sex marriages as official partnerships under state law.

Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group spokesperson, Rodney Croome, welcomed the move saying it will provide greater legal security to couples moving to Tasmania.

"Couples in interstate and overseas unions should not have to re-register their relationship in order to secure the legal rights and protections most other couples take for granted", Mr Croome said.

"It is important for Tasmanian law to respect the official, legal commitment partners make to each other, regardless of what state or country that commitment was made in."

Tasmanian Deeds of Relationship are already recognised as civil partnerships in the ACT, New Zealand, Britain, and in federal law.

In the State Lower House, Bass MP, Michael Ferguson, was unsuccessful in attempting to ensure overseas same-sex marriages will not be recognised as Tasmanian Deeds of Relationship, because, in his view, this would undermine the current definition of marriage in Australian law as the union of a man and a woman.

But some Upper House members declared that it would be unacceptable discrimination to recognise overseas same-sex civil partnerships and not overseas same-sex marriages, particularly given that both types of legal union are available in some other countries.

Government spokesperson, Doug Parkinson, confirmed that overseas same-sex marriages will be recognised as Tasmanian Deeds of Relationship.

Some Upper House members also noted the fact that the Federal Marriage Act only prohibits the recognition of overseas same-sex marriages as marriages, not as state civil partnerships.

Mr Croome congratulated Upper House members on their pragmatic and practical approach to the issue.

"What matters here is not what an officially-recognised relationship is called, but the love and commitment it signifies, and the legal protection it deserves."

In 2003 Tasmanian was the first Australian state to establish a civil partnership scheme. In 2005 it was the first to see the introduction to Parliament of state same-sex marriage laws, although these did not pass. In 2009 the state conference of the Tasmanian Labor Party was the first in Australia to support same-sex marriage.

For more information contact Rodney Croome on 0409 010 668.