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.
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Significant relationships
Both same-sex and mixed-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:[1]
- Superannuation (pension/retirement benefits)
- Taxation
- Insurance
- Health Care
- Hospital Visitation
- Wills
- Property Division
- Employment Conditions (such as parenting and bereavement leave)
Adoption and parenting
Same-sex couples cannot be assessed to be adoptive parents of children relinquished by other people. However, they may adopt their partner's child or children they already care for.[2]
From 1.1.2010, 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 (co-mother) in the same way as male partners of heterosexual women.[3] It is also possible for a birth-mother's same-sex partner to adopt any children she has through fertility treatment (stepchild adoption).[2] The legislation is retrospective (meaning the laws apply for co-mothers even before the law went into effect) as it is currently in the ACT, WA, NT, NSW and VIC (QLD is still debating the issue). 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).
South Australia is the only place in Australia to have a legal ban on both single women and lesbians from full safe IVF access due to the legislation called the Reproductive Technology (Clinical Practices) Act 1988 [1].
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, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has 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 2008:
- Australian Capital Territory (civil partnership)
- Victoria (Australia) (registered partnership)
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.
Foreign recognition
Most countries or jurisdictions which have enacted their own form of civil unions or domestic partnerships will automatically recognise couples registered in Tasmania as having the same rights as married couples when they enter their country.
- British law recognizes Tasmania's Significant Relationships as equivalent to its civil partnerships in the United Kingdom.
- The Commonwealth countries of Canada and South Africa have both legalised same-sex marriage and well as non-Commonwealth countries such as Sweden, Spain, Norway, Netherlands and Belgium do recognise Tasmania's relationships.
- Several European countries recognise Tasmania's model: Denmark, Andorra, Iceland, Greenland, Hungary, Germany, France, Portugal, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Slovenia and Switzerland. Both Austria and Ireland will recognise Tasmania’s model from 2010 when they complete there own relationship legislation.
- In the United States the states of Maine, Hawaii, Colorado, Nevada, Wisconsin, Washington DC, Oregon, Washington State, Hawaii and California have domestic relationship or beneficiaries legislation which recognise Tasmanian registrations. Other US states with civil unions or civil marriage including New Jersey, Iowa, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Vermont also recognise Tasmania's registered relationships. However, Maryland does not recognise Tasmania's model because they do not have a registory.
- A few Latin American countries with similar laws recognise relationships from Tasmania, including Uruguay, Columbia, Ecuador and some parts of Argentina, Brazil and Mexico.
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. As of July 2007, the registration fee was AUS$137.50.[4]
See also
References
- ^ ""Relationships Act: The Tasmanian Approach"</". Partners Task Force for Gay and Lesbian Couples. 2006-04-03. http://www.buddybuddy.com/d-p-taz.html. Retrieved 2007-07-25.
- ^ a b http://www.relationshipstasmania.org.au/parentingrights.html Relationships Tasmania
- ^ Tasmanian Upper House Approves Same-Sex Family Law
- ^ "Births, Deaths, and Marriages: Relationships". Tasmanian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Department of Justice. http://www.justice.tas.gov.au/bdm/relationships. Retrieved 2007-07-28.
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"
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