Victorian Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages
Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (13:52): (16) My question is to the Attorney-General. Attorney, the office of the registry of births, deaths and marriages at 595 Collins Street, Melbourne, has been closed to the general public since 2020, causing immense frustration and delay to many Victorians. Call centre access is limited and characterised by long delays of up to 4 hours. Attorney, why have the registry’s doors remained closed to the public, and when will they reopen?
Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (13:53): I do not want to be too cute about this, but I am not the responsible minister for births, deaths and marriages, because that has moved across to the Minister for Government Services. However, in a show of good faith, I know a fair bit about it because I did have it for the previous two years. When it comes to the office of births, deaths and marriages, it is not the only place that you can access certificates; you can go to regional offices and department of justice service centres. There are a range of activities I think where requiring people to come into the CBD to obtain their documents is probably not a fit-for-purpose type of model in 2023. Notwithstanding that, there is a call-back feature for people to contact births, deaths and marriages so that they can get the assistance they need if they cannot make the time to make the phone call during the office hours that it is open.
What did happen – and I have explained this answer when we have had issues with births, deaths and marriages in the past two years in relation to the impacts of COVID – was obviously that the office was closed during some of the time of restrictions and there was a fair turnover in the workforce. I was getting questions about ‘Why haven’t you just opened when you can?’ It was because we had to recruit new people, because we could not just bring people back that had moved on to other roles. A lot of them had moved into roles that were responding to the COVID response, particularly helping people on those helplines and the like.
I do know that it is a source of frustration for electorate offices, because I know that you get feedback about BDM hold-ups and the like. I can assure you that there is a concerted effort across government to ensure that there are a range of ways for people to access the documents that they need. And I know that the Minister for Government Services, who is now responsible for this, is certainly working towards this, because we have provided him with the information about some of the concerns that we have about making sure we are on the pathway to continual improvement.
Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (13:55): I ask the minister to refer this to the appropriate minister now that it is out of her hands. But, Attorney, the failure of births, deaths and marriages to fully reopen is causing, as you have acknowledged, great distress to many Victorians: new parents who cannot get their babies’ birth certificates in a timely way to apply for passports or enrol in schools; people going through divorce who cannot obtain marriage certificates to finalise proceedings; bereaved relatives who are trying to manage estate issues who cannot obtain death certificates in a reasonable time. You are saying they should be able to get a call-back, but they are waiting on the phone for hours. These people deserve better. Attorney, citing the pandemic, as you just did, is no longer acceptable to excuse this failure to provide important services to Victorians. I ask the minister: will the minister commit to a full reopening of the registry of births, deaths and marriages by no later than April this year?
Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (13:56): Ms Crozier, that is a series of misinformation that you have just presented to the chamber. Certainly there are individuals that have had hold-ups, but if you get on the births, deaths and marriages website, it tells you the average processing days. The people that are having problems are generally the people that have complicated issues where they have had a change of name that was not registered properly or whatever. ‘Normal’ is not the right word, but when there is not another factor and it is just your standard certificate, they are being processed at record speed in comparison with other states. Again I am no longer the minister responsible, but I am pretty sure when you get onto the website it tells you how long you should anticipate to get a response, and that is being met in the vast majority of cases. In terms of your timing in specific relation to that office, I will pass that on to the relevant minister, because I am the representing minister in this chamber for Minister Pearson.