Making a complaint about an Australian marriage celebrant
Sometimes (hopefully rarely) a couple is unhappy with their Australian marriage celebrant and wants to make a complaint. Obviously we hope it doesn’t come to that. However it’s a legal requirement for us celebrants to give you information on how to make a complaint about an Australian marriage celebrant if you want to. So here’s the info…
Who do you complain to?
If you’re making a complaint about a Commonwealth-registered marriage celebrant, you direct it to the Marriage Law and Celebrants Section (MLCS) of the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department.
If you’re making a complaint about a minister of religion of a recognised denomination, you direct it to their church.
What can you complain about?
There is a limited list of complaints MLCS can deal with. You can only complain if a celebrant has broken the law or the rules in the:
MLCS cannot deal with complaints about money or contractual issues. For such issues you should contact the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission or the consumer affairs body in your state or territory (e.g. Consumer Affairs Victoria).
MLCS lists the following examples of valid complaints on their website:
- the marriage celebrant was unprofessional
- they did not respect your privacy
- they made mistakes on the paperwork
- they didn’t submit documents to the registry of births, deaths and marriages on time
- they didn’t make sure the people getting married could give, or had given, real consent to the marriage.
How do you make the complaint?
You have to make the complaint via the form on the AGD website. You must make the complaint within three months of first becoming aware of the problem.
What happens to your complaint?
After receiving the complaint form, MLCS will let you know in writing they have received it.
They review the complaint, and ask you for more information if required. Once they have all the information they will let you know if they have decided to:
- not deal with the complaint because it lacks merit
- refer the complaint to a more appropriate department
- investigate the complaint further.
The reasons for MLCS deciding not to deal with a complaint outlined on their website include:
- it was not made on the correct form
- it is not about the solemnisation of marriage by a marriage celebrant
- it is frivolous, vexatious, misconceived, lacking in substance, or not in good faith
- the complainant does not have sufficient interest in the issue
- the complaint was not made within three months
- the substance of the complaint has been previously heard
- the complaint is the subject of other processes
- the complaint would more appropriately be dealt with by another body.
Dealing with the complaint
Once MLCS has decided they are the appropriate body and to go ahead with investigating, they send your complaint (without your contact details) to the celebrant and ask them to respond. After receiving the response, MLCS will decide whether or not to take further action. Further action may include:
- giving the celebrant a warning
- requiring the celebrant to do more training
- suspend the celebrant’s registration
- deregistering the celebrant.
After finalising the outcome, MLCS will let you know what has happened.
So that’s what happens when you make a complaint about an Australian marriage celebrant! As I say, hopefully it doesn’t come to that – please do contact me if I ever do anything you’re not happy with!