Victoria’s Births, Deaths and Marriages plan hatched then dispatched

An early plan to give private investors access to parts of Victoria’s births, deaths and marriages registry has been abandoned by the state government after backlash from a key union and grassroots Labor members.

Treasurer Tim Pallas told The Age that while other industry partnerships were beneficial for taxpayers, the government did not believe such value existed for a similar arrangement with Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria.

Victorian Labor’s policy committee had sought to meet with Treasurer Tim Pallas over his plans for Births, Deaths and Marriages.Credit: Joe Armao

The comments represent the first time the treasurer has explicitly ruled out a joint venture partnership for the agency after The Age revealed that Pallas had floated the idea with investors.

Births, Deaths and Marriages has been criticised in the past for long certificate wait times and for closing its office and temporarily shutting its call centre during the pandemic.

“We’re always looking at opportunities for service improvement, but we do not see public value in the operation of the Births, Deaths and Marriages under a joint venture partnership,” Pallas told The Age.

“We’re continuing our work to improve Births, Deaths and Marriages. Over the past year, we’ve slashed call wait times by 90 per cent and slashed how long it takes for Victorians to receive certificates or register a birth, death or marriage.”

The Age revealed in June that Pallas had met private investors and gauged interest in running some of the registry’s services, following a quiet review of the state’s public agencies.

A representative from one investment firm, who spoke to The Age on the condition of anonymity, said the treasurer had pitched the idea as a limited-term contract in the style of the partial privatisation of VicRoads’ licensing and registration arms. That deal, announced in 2022, is not due to expire until the 2060s.

The industry source, who did not wish to be named so as not to jeopardise commercial interests, said Pallas had expressed the desire to close any deal by the end of the year.

A joint venture partnership, which the government insists is not a type of privatisation, could have raised an injection of funds for Victoria’s bottom line while providing superannuation companies or other investors with tens of millions of dollars in guaranteed annual income from services such as distributing official certificates.

This year’s budget papers suggest Victoria’s net debt will rise to $187.8 billion by June 2028.

But the early plan was criticised by both the Greens, which accused Labor of being addicted to privatisation, and the Coalition, which is no stranger to privatisation itself.

The public sector union, which represents Births, Deaths and Marriages employees, waged a campaign against any joint venture with government attack ads.

Even grassroots Labor members issued a please-explain to the treasurer, passing three motions in recent months flagging concerns that another joint venture contradicted Victorian Labor’s policy platform.

One resolution, passed by Victorian Labor’s industrial affairs policy committee, labelled the VicRoads deal and the lease of the Port of Melbourne a “gross betrayal” of basic Labor values that should never have occurred.

The Community and Public Sector Union’s Karen Batt welcomed the announcement on Births, Deaths and Marriages.Credit: Eddie Jim

Community and Public Sector Union state secretary Karen Batt welcomed the government’s announcement and said opening up part of Births, Deaths and Marriages to investors would have been a disaster.

“Births, Deaths and Marriages has been recording significant life events for Victorians since 1853 and this asset and its history belongs to all of us,” Batt said.

Greens co-deputy Sam Hibbins said the saga proved Labor were repeat offenders when it came to “half-baked privatisation proposals”.

“We only need to look at their plan to demolish and privatise all of Victoria’s public housing towers to know that they’re happy to push forward without a shred of evidence to back it up,” Hibbins said.

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