CELEBRANT TRAINING

for the Australian Civil Marriage Celebrant

Compulsory Ongoing Professional Development activities for 2007-2008

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Details of the compulsory ongoing professional development activity obligation for 2007-2008 for the Civil Marriage Celebrant are as follows:-

• The compulsory activity is three (3) hours in length.

• It deals in detail with ensuring that the marriages conducted by celebrant are valid under the Marriage Act 1961.

• The three hours covers a range of activities, including questions and group work.

• There will be a charge for completing the compulsory activity.

The compulsory activity concerns the validity of the marriage under Section 23B of the Marriage Act. It lists what makes a marriage void or invalid. 

• one of the parties is married to another person

• one of the parties is under the marriageable age

• the parties are too closely related (within a prohibited relationship)

• the requirements of the Act are breached and section 48 of the Act cannot apply, or

• the consent of one of the parties to the marriage was not a real consent for one of the following reasons:

• the consent was obtained by duress or fraud

• the party was mistaken as to the identity of the other party or the nature of the ceremony, or

• a party lacked the mental capacity to consent to the marriage.

All these areas will be covered in the activity. There will be time for you to ask questions and a break is also included within the three hours. Participants will be asked to consider some common situations in which the above issues might arise, and work out what the marriage celebrant should do in these situations.

Timetable for the activity

The duration is three hours made up of: -

• Introduction, outline of the activity – 15 minutes

• Questions, discussion, summary of the grounds on which a marriage may be invalid – 10 minutes

• Outline of each of these in turn – 80 minutes total, including 15-minute break

• Break – 20 minutes

• Discussion in small groups (scenarios provided) – 20-30 minutes

• Discussion of responses to scenarios from small groups – 20 minutes

• Summary – 5 minutes.

How is this compulsory activity undertaken?

a)       Either by a face to face session

or

b)       by means of distance education.

Face-to-face options has a number of providers throughout Australia.

Distance education option 

For those who are genuinely unable to attend a face to face session because of distance or illness, will be able to complete their compulsory activity as distance education option provided by the Department. 

This option will not be available until 19 MAY 2008, and those who require it will need to purchase it from CanPrint Communications and not from the Marriage Celebrants Section.

Approved providers for compulsory activities

Providers of Compulsory Professional Development 2008  

  Professional Development Face to Face 2008  

Professional Development Distance Education 2008  

Professional Development Distance and Face to Face