The benefits of registering a Deed of Relationship

There are many benefits to registering your Deed of Relationship.

These benefits may be different according to your personal circumstances and aspirations, and what kind of relationship you are in.

1. Registration is important for certifying that a relationship exists

This can be particularly important in emergency situations where one partner in a personal relationship may find it necessary to prove they have the legal right to make important medical decisions for the other partner.

Registration may also be useful in proving the existence of a relationship when dealing with government agencies.

All Tasmanian Government agencies are legally obliged to recognise registered relationships.

While the Federal Government and other Australian State or Territory Governments are not obliged to recognise relationships registered in Tasmania, a Deed of Relationship may contribute to proving the existence of a relationship in their eyes.

For example, where one partner in a same-sex relationship is not an Australian resident, the Federal Department of Immigration requires the couple to prove their relationship status before residency on the grounds of a relationship can be granted.

A Tasmanian Deed of Relationship can make an important contribution to proving the existence of a relationship in these circumstances.

2. Registration gives immediate access to relationship rights

Under Tasmanian law, all personal relationships have virtually the same right as married couples.

All personal relationships are recognised for purposes such as wills, property division, guardianship, health care, statutory compensation schemes, state taxes, fees and licenses, and state superannuation and pension schemes.

For the complete list click here.

Partners in significant or caring relationships who do not register may access these rights if they fulfil certain criteria.

For example, they must prove that their relationship is of some duration and may have involved cohabitation, joint property ownership, financial interdependence or commitment to a shared life together.

In contrast, partners who register their relationship are not required to fulfil any other criteria or pass any other legal tests before they qualify for relationship rights.

Registration means immediate access to all these rights regardless of such factors as the duration of the relationship, financial interdependence or cohabitation.

3. There are some rights which can only be accessed by registered couples

Under Tasmania's relationships law, only people in registered significant relationships may adopt, or be presumed to be the parents of children born to their partners from fertility treatments.

Partners in non-registered relationships do not have these parenting rights. Neither do partners in caring relationships, regardless of whether they have registered a Deed of Relationship.

There are also differences in the parenting rights available to different and same-sex registered couples.

For more on this see "Parenting".

Registered couples are also automatically recognised as being in an official union in some of those foreign countries which have civil union or registered partnership laws.

For more on this see "foreign recognition of Tasmanian registered relationships ".

4. Registration affirms the love and commitment in a relationship

Many personal unions are still stigmatised as second rate or even as unacceptable compared to traditional relationship forms such as marriage.

These unions include unmarried mixed-sex couples, same-sex couples and people in non-conjugal partnerships.

Registration of a Deed of Relationship is a way for the love and commitment in all these traditionally marginalised relationships to be publicly affirmed.

This affirmation occurs at the official level, through the registration of a Deed of Relationship, and also by Tasmanian society in general, through its support of the relationship registry.

There is no requirement or provision for an official ceremony for a relationship to be registered.

However, many couples, especially same-sex couples, often choose to accompany their registration with a ceremony.