Motions

Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act Fees Notice

The Hon. H.M. GIROLAMO (Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (16:12): I move:

That the fees notice under the Births, Death and Marriages Registration Act 1996, made on 4 December 2024 and laid on the table of this council on 4 February 2025, be disallowed.

I rise today to speak to the disallowance motion. Each year, fees and charges are reviewed and adjusted, usually in line with CPI; however, these increases go well above CPI. The additional revenue appears to be imposed to assist Births, Deaths and Marriages in meeting a $1 million savings target.

This is an unfair and unnecessary burden on South Australians at times of the most challenging moments of their lives, whether it be a grieving family who is dealing with the emotional and financial toll of losing a loved one, or new parents who are already facing significant financial pressures. New parents or grieving families should not be asked to pay more simply to help balance the state budget based on Labor's overspending. The government should not be using grieving families as a cash grab to fix their budget problems.

The increase per form may seem small in isolation, but the reality is that these costs add up. At a time when South Australians are really struggling with a cost-of-living crisis, the government should be looking for ways to ease financial pressures, not add to them. We are seeing an increase from $62.50 to $67.50 for registering changes of name or gender, processing applications for identity acknowledgement certificates, making corrections to entries, or printing any standard form. That is a jump of 8 per cent. Similarly, the cost for printing death certificate extracts or commemorative certificate packages has gone up from $93.50 to $98.50, which is a 5.3 per cent increase. For something such as producing a digital historical record, the fee has risen from $31.25 to $36.25, a huge 16 per cent increase. This is unacceptable and all well over the CPI expected increase.

This parliament should send a clear message that we are not going to add to the many costs that have been rising during this cost-of-living crisis and these costs that have impacted people during the most vulnerable times of their lives, especially not during this cost-of-living crisis. From my perspective, these increases are unacceptable and should be reversed.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon I.K. Hunter.