Under section forty six of the wedding Act 1961, a celebrant is required to say these phrases, or words to this effect, in every marriage ceremony. The earliest legislative reform within the state designed to provide equal therapy of similar-intercourse couples came in August 2001, within the type of the Statute Law Amendment (Relationships) Act 2001 and the Statute Law Further Amendment (Relationships) Act 2001. The acts amended 60 legal guidelines in Victoria to provide similar-intercourse couples, known as “home partners”, many rights equal to those enjoyed by de facto couples, together with hospital entry, medical determination making, superannuation, inheritance rights, property tax, landlord and tenancy rights, psychological health treatment and victims of crime procedures. In December 2016, the South Australia Parliament handed a legislation which created a relationship register for similar-sex couples and recognises the relationships of identical-intercourse couples who had married or entered into an official union in other states and nations.

In 2016, the Parliament passed reforms to the state’s domestic partnerships laws, allowing for the recognition of overseas same-intercourse marriages on official documents and in addition allowing couples the option of having an official ceremony when registering for a domestic partnership. This has allowed identical-sex couples to register their relationships with the state Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages and provide conclusive proof of a de facto relationship, permitting them to receive all the benefits and rights of such a pair beneath state and federal law. On 30 November 2011, the Queensland Parliament handed a invoice allowing civil partnerships in the state. In November 2013, a invoice was launched to the Legislative Council to legalise same-intercourse marriage at a state stage, thought it was narrowly defeated. The invoice amended the definition of “marriage” within the Act, omitting the phrases “man and a lady” and changing it with the gender-neutral wording “2 folks”. Senator Dean Smith introduced into Parliament a private senator’s invoice to alter the definition of marriage to permit identical-sex couples to marry, after 61.6% of Australians who responded within the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey voted to support same-sex marriage. Homophobia clearly marked the Court’s resolution to uphold the regulation.

Civil partnerships, commonly known as civil unions, have been legal in Queensland since April 2016. The Queensland Parliament handed the Discrimination Law Amendment Act 2002 in December of that 12 months, which created non-discriminatory definitions of “de facto companion” with respect to forty two items of laws. Finally, the Act amended the new South Wales Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 to make sure identical-intercourse couples are protected from discrimination on the basis of their “marital or home standing” in employment, accommodation and access to other items and providers. However, the courtroom went on to find out that the word “marriage” in section 51(xxi) of the Constitution means “a consensual union formed between natural persons in accordance with legally prescribed requirements” the place that union is “supposed to endure and be terminable solely in accordance with law” and “accords a standing affecting and defining mutual rights and obligations”. The Act provides conclusive proof of the existence of a relationship and ensures individuals gain all the rights afforded to de facto couples under state and federal legislation. The new law changed the title from “civil partnership” to “registered relationship” and prohibited the state from providing ceremonies for many who do register their relationship on this manner. This meant same-intercourse couples and any two people who stay together are coated by the same laws.

It was to be repealed and civil unions have been to be now not accessible to identical-intercourse couples upon graduation of the marriage Equality (Same Sex) Act 2013, which (if not struck down by the High Court) would have permanently legalised similar-intercourse marriage in the territory. This gave same-sex couples the identical rights as de facto couples in most situations. Same-sex couples have access to home partnership registries (in any other case generally known as registered relationships) within the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Tasmania, Victoria and South Australia. Previously, identical-sex couples could enter into civil unions in the Australian Capital Territory. From June 2014 to October 2017, 445 same-sex couples married in British diplomatic offices across Australia. On 10 October 2013, federal Attorney-General George Brandis confirmed that the federal authorities would problem the proposed ACT bill, stating that it had significant constitutional considerations with respect to the bill. As to the relation between the ACT act and federal legislation, the courtroom discovered that the ACT act was invalid and of “no effect”, as a result of it was “inconsistent”, in terms of the Australian Capital Territory Self-Government Act 1988 (Cth), and the federal Marriage Act 1961 (Cth).