Births, Deaths and Marriages Registry makes millions from increasing certificate fees in cost-of-living crisis

Victoria’s Births, Deaths and Marriages Registry made millions of dollars from increasing fees for legal certificates twice in as many years during the cost-of-living crisis.

Documents released to the state opposition under freedom of information laws show the Department of Government Services earned an extra $3.6 million in the 10 months to April last year after increasing the price of birth, death and marriage certificates by $20 in March 2022.

Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria has increased its prices twice in two years.Credit: Eddie Jim

The price was increased again, from $52.30 to $54.40, on July 1 last year. Since then, Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria issued more than 280,000 certificates, meaning the agency has raked in an additional half-a-million dollars in 10 months.

The government says it initially raised the price in 2022 because Victoria’s certificate fees were well below other states, while last year’s increase was pegged to indexation, according to Treasury.

But the opposition and crossbench have suggested the price hikes are “window dressing” ahead of a possible sale of the agency’s services, given a steady trickle of reliable income is precisely what investment banks look for to round out their portfolios.

The Sunday Age previously revealed that Treasurer Tim Pallas had held initial discussions with private firms to gauge their interest in running some of the agency’s services.

The revenue figures come as the Greens seek to apply more pressure on Labor over privatisation. The party will introduce a bill in the next sitting week that would block further privatisation of government services.

The Allan government has consistently called the partial privatisation of some VicRoads services a “joint venture partnership” and not a kind of privatisation.

Greens finance spokesman Sam Hibbins said Labor was now arguably running a bigger privatisation agenda than under former Liberal premier Jeff Kennett.

“They are privatising public services that were never considered,” Hibbins said. “They’re planning to privatise Births, Deaths and Marriages, looking to demolish and privatise 44 public housing towers. And this is on top of the privatisation of the Port of Melbourne, VicRoads and land titles office.”

With Labor’s large lower house majority, the Greens’ bill is doomed to fail. But Hibbins said his party would continue to apply pressure – and attempt to win over more Labor voters – over the issue.

“We won’t be horsetrading on privatisation. We’ll be looking at stopping it dead in its tracks.”

Opposition finance spokeswoman Jess Wilson accused Labor of using fee hikes as “window dressing” to entice potential investors.

“Labor cannot manage money and is hiking fees on Victorians to squeeze every dollar it can out of the sale of yet another public asset,” Wilson said.

The state budget in May predicted that by 2028, taxpayers would be on the hook for interest repayments of more than $25 million a day.

A government spokesman stressed the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registry had a financial hardship and fee-waiver policy.

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