Ferntree Gully electorate
Mr WAKELING (Ferntree Gully) (14:44:044:): (6430) My question is for the Attorney-General. I have heard from many Knox residents over the past 2½ years who have raised concerns with me about the difficulty they have been experiencing and are still experiencing in trying to make contact with the Victorian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages. Local residents would like to know why births, deaths and marriages offices are still temporarily closed to the public now but COVID restrictions have been lifted. A local resident, Ms Foster, advises that she has been trying to get help from births, deaths and marriages for the past 3½ weeks, but every time she emails she receives the same generated email response in return. She has even tried the method of contacting them via Facebook to only find comments from many other people absolutely disgusted in the service of this department. Local residents are trying to get important documents for a whole range of reasons, and this is simply not happening. So, Minister, can you please advise what ‘temporarily closed’ means—is it five days, five months or 2½ years? What can residents do in order to gain access to details from births, deaths and marriages?