Personal stories
The best way of illustrating the benefits of registering a Deed of Relationship is through personal stories.
Included below are three such stories, each illustrating a different benefit of registration.
~ Jonathan
My partner, Rik Thirlwell, and I chose to register our relationship very soon after the law enabled us to do so.
We did this for many reasons, fundamentally security. Most of the rights afforded to married couples are extended to registered partnerships so we chose to use the legislation to gain security in legal and financial arrangements.
We are homeowners. We also run a small business together. So our financial life is at it would be would with a married couple. With registration that is protected.
It's a relatively simple process to register one's relationship. We paid a little bit more so we actually have a registration certificate. We figured it would be useful in the situation where someone says "you can't come into the hospital because you're not related to this person". I can wave the registration form and say "yes I can here's my certificate".
In all such situations the process would be so much simpler with our relationship registered. We wouldn't have to produce years of documentation.
These laws could easily be applied nationally. The law changed in Tasmania with not a lot of fuss being made.
There are many Tasmanian couples this legislation has benefited and there are many more it could benefit at a national level.
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~ David
I'm 59 and looking at retiring in the next year or so. I'm trying to set up provision to protect Kevin should I die before he does.
I expect to be able to access my British local government superannuation pension next year. The British Government will recognise our relationship if we take out a civil partnership under the Tasmanian legislation. So we've now got this absurd situation where a foreign government will accept me as Kevin's partner if the state government says so, even though our national government doesn't say so. So the British Government is bypassing the national legislation, or lack of it, and that just seems a nonsense.
When I wrote (our HREOC) submission I was that annoyed it seemed Kevin and I would have to go all the way to the UK or go to the UK Embassy and take out a civil partnership agreement under British legislation rather than enter into a recognised relationship in Australia. That seemed an impost, particularly for Kevin who's not a British citizen. Now we don't actually have to do that. All we need to do is go across the road and register our partnership under Tasmanian law and the British Government will recognise that.
The British pension I'm looking forward to comes in the form of a partial lump sum payment and an annual pension. Once I access that pension, if I should die, heaven forbid one year after I retire, then Kevin will get one year's worth of pension, but after that, without us having gone into a Tasmanian civil partnership, Kevin would have had to fight for (the rest). Whether he would have been successful I don't know (but) certainly under British law we understand he will be successful if we have that Tasmanian civil partnership.
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~ Peter and Ian
My partner Ian, of 28 years and myself has registered our relationship with the Deed of Relationship.
Ian and I moved from Melbourne in 2002 as sea changers. We felt the gay law reform in Tasmania was the most progressive in Australia and was a deciding factor in moving to Tasmania to start our new life.
After moving here we became aware of the Deed of Relationship and decided to register our relationship. We registered because we felt it was great protection against discrimination and gave us equal rights in certain aspects of the State laws.
We are able to have hospital visitation rights and property rights which are important in a situation of terminal illness.
The Deed of Relationship has benefits for all couples, whether it is a same sex, caring or de-facto relationship.
We feel that as we have been recognised by the state government, that acceptance at the community level would follow.
We live in a small community on the north-east coast of Tasmania and have been accepted as part of a very caring and open community. We would encourage all people in a relationship to register, to be able receive the benefits and security of the State Deed of Relationship.
