What it does
This Act creates a statutory framework for registering intimate domestic and caring relationships in Victoria, for recognising equivalent relationships from other jurisdictions, for giving legal effect to relationship agreements, and for enabling courts to adjust property interests and order maintenance between partners. The Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages is instructed to keep a Relationships Register (s 1(a); s 17). The Act sets eligibility and procedural requirements for applications to register a registrable domestic relationship or a registrable caring relationship (ss 6-10), and provides mechanisms for revoking registrations (ss 11-16).
The Act makes relationship agreements enforceable as contracts, subject to specified protections and court powers to vary or set them aside (ss 35A; 36; 37). It establishes statutory causes of action and remedies for property adjustment and maintenance between domestic partners and registered caring partners, and gives courts broad remedial powers to transfer, sell or otherwise deal with property, to order lump sums or periodic payments, and to grant ancillary relief for enforcement and security (Part 3.3, particularly ss 41, 45, 51, 58).
It also repeals Part IX of the Property Law Act 1958 and carries over existing rights and transitional arrangements (s 72; s 74). The Act creates privacy and access controls for Register information, allows the Registrar to collect additional records and to provide additional services (ss 20-27), and provides a right to review Registrar decisions at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) (s 28). The Act sets criminal penalties and civil enforcement options for false statements, unauthorised access or falsification of Register material (ss 29-31; s 70). Regulations may prescribe fees, including access and search fees, and may designate corresponding foreign or interstate laws for recognition purposes (s 71).