Same-sex couples who get married overseas will have their relationships automatically recognised in Victoria, giving easier access to rights such as acknowledgement on a partner’s death certificate.

And after a Greens amendments, same-sex couples will be able to celebrate recognition with an official ceremony.

Victoria’s relationship register allows couples, including same-sex couples, to have their relationships recognised. Recognition makes it easier to access rights such as discussing a partner’s health information with a doctor in an emergency or when seeking compensation entitlements as a dependent partner.

On Wednesday the Victorian parliament passed a bill to automatically recognise relationships formalised under international laws or laws in other Australian states.

When introducing the bill in October, attorney general, Martin Pakula, said regulations would specify that the civil partnership and same-sex marriage schemes in the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Canada would be among those automatically recognised in Victoria.

The new law also allows couples to be registered where only one partner lives in Victoria, bringing it in line with the states’ relationship registration schemes.

The move follows the Bulmer-Rizzi incident in South Australia, in which the husband of a man who died on honeymoon was told the death certificate would read “never married” because overseas same-sex marriages were not recognised in the state.

The South Australian premier, Jay Weatherill, apologised and said the death certificate would be reissued to recognise the UK marriage. He also committed to amend laws that discriminated on the grounds of sexuality.

In Victoria the Greens successfully added an amendment that the births, deaths and marriages registrar may provide services for an official ceremony to celebrate the registration of a relationship, such as use of the Old Treasury Building.

Victorian Greens LGBTI equality spokesperson Sam Hibbins said “currently registering a relationship only involves filling out the right paperwork, but this change will give same-sex couples the option of having their own official ceremony as part of this registration”.

“While in no way a substitute for full marriage equality at the federal level, allowing same-sex couples to conduct a ceremony when registering their relationship provides greater dignity and brings Victoria in line with other jurisdictions like Tasmania,” he said.

Pakula said the law “promotes the right to equality, including for couples who cannot currently marry under Australian law because of their sex, sexual orientation or gender identity”.

Couples whose relationships had been formalised elsewhere “will have the security of knowing that their decision to commit to a shared life with each other is respected in Victoria”, he said.

Same-sex couples who have married overseas now have their relationships automatically recognised in Queensland, NSW, Victoria, and Tasmania.

In May 2014 the Greens put forward a bill to recognise overseas same-sex marriages as marriages for the purpose of Australian laws, which has not been voted on yet.

When it was last debated two weeks ago Greens sexuality and marriage equality spokesperson and federal senator Robert Simms bemoaned the fact West Australia, South Australia and the territories did not recognise same-sex marriages.

Simms said the bill would remedy this inconsistency and prevent cases like that of Marco Bulmer-Rizzi , who was not recognised as next of kin following the death of his husband in an accident in Adelaide.

Australian Marriage Equality national director, Rodney Croome congratulated Victoria on recognising overseas same-sex marriages and said 80% of Australians now lived in states that recognise them.

“The recent case of a married British partner, Marco Bulmer Rizzi, who was not recognised as next of kin when his husband accidentally died in Adelaide highlights the importance of such laws,” Croome said.



“But where this reform really needs to occur is at a federal level so that all same-sex couples married under foreign laws – be they Australians or foreigners – have equal protection no matter where they are in Australia,” he said.