Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria
David LIMBRICK (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:19): (426) My question is for the minister representing the Minister for Government Services and is related to births, deaths and marriages services, and I can almost hear the collective sigh from my colleagues around the chamber. This is not the first time I have raised issues with this service, and I am not the only member of this chamber to raise them. When I raised this matter in August last year requesting that the office be reopened and services be restored to adequate levels, I also questioned whether it was permanently closed and whether rent was being paid on an empty office. The minister did not state this in his response, but it does seem that the office has indeed been permanently closed. I have not heard any announcements, but there is no longer an address listed on their website. My question for the minister is: why has the births, deaths and marriages office closed?
Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:20): I will ensure that Minister Williams provides a response to Mr Limbrick.
David LIMBRICK (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:20): I thank the Attorney-General for passing that on for me. If this is simply part of the streamlining and cost-cutting measures that the government is implementing to pay for the largesse of the COVID spending era, then fair enough. I am hardly one to oppose savings measures. However, this is hardly a grant for some new weird art installation but a critical service that people need in order to engage with a lot of other services. When I last spoke about this issue, the rating on Google for births, deaths and marriages was 1.7 out of 5. Remarkably it has fallen, despite assurances from the minister that they were focusing on improving service delivery. At 1.6 stars, the stories reflect the same things, such as people paying three times for a simple document, not receiving it and not receiving a reply to emails. Another person explained that it took 4½ months for the complaint to get to the Ombudsman to get a birth certificate. I ask the minister: what is being done to ensure adequate service delivery for people trying to access or alter these critical documents?
Jaclyn SYMES (Northern Victoria – Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (12:21): Mr Limbrick, I will add your second question to your first.