Recent works by the Marriage Law and Celebrants Section (MLCS)
Change takes time, especially in government, but the MLCS team has been very busy behind the scenes working on a number of projects.
New Guidelines on the Marriage Act
The consultation period for the revised guidelines concluded in November 2025 and there were still a lot of changes that needed to be made. In her update, Registrar of Marriage Celebrants Rosa Pezella assured us that this is still a priority.
Performance reviews
In our update on the previous meeting in December 2025, we mentioned that MLCS intended to re-introduce performance reviews for celebrants. The pilot program for this has now launched, with the intention to roll out this program more broadly once they’ve learned from this smaller sample group.
Performance reviews are nothing to be scared of – we actually think they are a great thing, as they will help MLCS identify where there are knowledge gaps among celebrants and help raise professional standards across the industry.
Celebrant enquiries
The MLCS continues to receive a large number of enquiries every year. In the 2025–26 FY (as of 28th May), they received 14,297 emails, 1,979 phone calls and 208 letters (yes, actual paper letters), which puts them on track to be slightly higher than last financial year.
They do their best to give a realistic response time to all enquiries, prioritising urgent questions that will affect a soon-to-happen wedding. However, if you have a question, don’t forget to first check the Guidelines. If you can’t find the answer there, TCS members can always post a question in our Facebook group, or reach out to us directly at [email protected] and we will be happy to help if we can.
Other completed work and work in progress
- Accessibility improvements to the AGD website
- Review of compulsory professional development (CPD) compliance (more on CPD below)
- Preparations for the annual celebrant survey (more on this below)
- Further review of the Happily Ever Before (and After) document (more on this below)
- Preparations for the annual registration fee, which will be sent to celebrants in July
2026 Marriage Celebrant Survey
Not to be confused with The Celebrant Industry Survey we sent out to TCS members in April, this survey has been sent by MLCS to gain insights about civil celebrants, and more specifically, how we engage with the areas managed by the MLCS and what we would like to see from the AGD in the future.
In the meeting, the associations were able to provide feedback on the proposed questions and, luckily, most of the suggested changes were able to be incorporated (an example is that the original survey only had the upper limit of marriages solemnised in a year as ‘11 or more’, and we felt that number was way too low to truly get a sense of the different levels of experience among celebrants).
Some questions we thought were of particular interest were around CPD, as we have had many TCS members tell us that they would like to see the return of more CPD to help raise standards in the industry – this is your chance to be heard!
The survey has just been released, and you should’ve received an email from the AGD with a link.
It is an anonymous survey and we encourage ALL celebrants to fill it out before it closes at the end of August. The MLCS team really does listen, so it’s important that we let them know what we want.
Compulsory professional development (CPD)
For those of you who still refer to this as OPD (aka me), we have an official word on why ‘ongoing’ has been formally changed to ‘compulsory’. It was to differentiate the training set out by MLCS that all celebrants must do, versus other kinds of ongoing training, e.g. further training set after a complaint or performance review, or the ongoing training a celebrant may voluntarily undertake. Makes sense.
Anyway, the more pressing issues were on the 2026 CPD topics and where we want it to go in the future.
The overall feedback for 2026 CPD was that it was pretty good. The associations and networks felt the topic on separate meetings was well written and answered a lot of common questions celebrants had since their introduction in 2024. The feedback was also quite positive for the Knowledge of the Law topic. However, as of 28 May, only 22.2% of celebrants have completed their CPD. You do have until 31st December to get it done, but if you’re in the middle of your quiet season, now is the perfect time to knock it out.
An agenda item raised by Yvonne Adele of the Celebrants Training College was that the current CPD model isn’t meeting the needs of celebrants in this current environment, particularly with AI tools creating a pathway for celebrants to skip the learning portion of CPD.
She proposed a hybrid model which would include an in-person or live online portion, applied practice or cohort-based learning in addition to the units delivered by MLCS via the celebrant portal. The intention is that learning can be better measured in this way, and also that some topics are better suited to a learning environment that involves discussion and scenario practice.
There were some concerns raised about adding more costs to celebrants if they have to start paying for CPD again, but the overwhelming majority of the room felt that training and ongoing learning should be considered a normal cost of doing business for any profession.
At TCS, we are big believers in continuing education for celebrants, and feel it is an important part of raising the bar on the industry as a whole, so we are excited to see if this idea is explored further. (And if you agree, don’t forget to let your thoughts be known in the AGD’s survey!)
Happily Ever Before and After brochure (HEBA)
The consultation period for the draft HEBA closed late last year, and a new draft (not yet ready for wider distribution) was presented for the meeting. It was the ‘director’s cut’ at 10 pages long, but honestly, we thought it was great! (And quite frankly, if a couple is going to make the very serious and life-altering decision to get married, they can manage to do a little light reading.)
The working title is now ‘Getting Married in Australia: What You Need to Know and Where to Get Help’ and it covers lots of really useful information that couples should have easy access to, including the importance of consent (and not showing up to your wedding intoxicated), steps for getting married, shortening of time, separate meetings, the legal effects of marriage, and links to loads of resources for relationship services, domestic violence, forced marriages and more. And while not all information will be relevant for all couples, there were clear headlines with the info well laid out and in plain language, making it easy for couples to scan for the most important parts for them.
There were still some suggestions for minor changes, so it’s not quite ready yet, but we hope to see a final version soon.
Notice of Intended Marriage (NOIM) updates
An updated draft was presented which mostly just refined the more dramatically changed draft presented at the previous meeting (which you can read about here). However, there still needs to be further work before this is ready for wider consideration.
I know one of the things that TCS members will be most excited about is that this draft NOIM has made the parents’ fields optional. There was very passionate support for this change among the celebrant associations and the MLCS is very open to this change. But before you get too excited, keep in mind there are still other stakeholders that will have their say.
So if you also feel strongly about making parents optional on the NOIM, we suggest you let the MLCS know. Start gathering specific stories about why this change is so important and how it will positively impact the dignity and mental health of our couples.
Celebrant Application Process
We were able to get an item to present on the agenda on the current difficulties many people are facing with the celebrant application process. A big thank you to TCS member Dianne Schmidtke for raising this topic with us, and also to many of the new celebrants (and celebrants-in-waiting) that we met at the conference who also brought this to our attention.
Many people are finding that there is a lot of back-and-forth with the MLCS before their application is accepted due to errors or incomplete applications. This is holding up their registration and creating an even wider gap between completing their Cert IV and an opportunity to start putting what they’ve learned into practice.
We led a discussion on whether more robust resources – such as videos or PowerPoints – could help applicants get their application right the first time, which in turn would reduce the administrative burden on MLCS and help process applications more efficiently.
Form 15s
We kinda thought this had been settled at the previous meeting, but not quite, apparently. Celebrants are not happy with the switch to 150gsm paper stock last year. Unfortunately, the 180gsm stock it used to be printed on is no longer available.
At the previous meeting, three paper samples were circulated: 150gsm, 170gsm, and 190gsm. The general consensus was that 170gsm would be the preferred option. However, some further questions were raised about paper specifications, which Canprint provided answers to. In the end, we still went with the 170gsm, so fingers crossed that change will be implemented ASAP.
Conclusion
This was a great meeting with a lot of progress made, and for the most part, consensus amongst the various celebrant associations and networks on positive ways to move forward. The MLCS were very open and optimistic about a lot of what was put forward. There are a lot of great things on the horizon, but change is still a while off yet.
In the meantime, we really want to encourage you to take the time to fill in the survey. We feel so privileged to not just be invited to these meetings, but to be there to represent all of our TCS members. And while we can get a lot achieved in just two meetings a year, this survey is your opportunity to get your thoughts directly to the MLCS team – don’t waste it!
The next Attorney-General’s Department Celebrant Associations & Networks Meeting is scheduled for 3rd December 2026. If you have any feedback or concerns you would like us to raise on your behalf, please contact us at [email protected]
