The Victorian branch of the public sector union is demanding the state government drop any plans to privatise or commercialise the state’s Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages.

CPSU Victoria has accused the government of seeking a quick cash injection to plug holes in the budget and says it want to achieve this by selling off the registry in whole or in part.

The registry currently returns more than $10 million a year to the state and selling even part of it would be short sighted, the CPSU says.

“The Victorian Government must drop any plans to privatise or commercialise the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages,” the union says.

Union launches petition

The CPSU is urging members to sign a petition demanding Treasurer Tim Pallas keep the state’s private records in public hands.

“The publicly owned registry and the people who work there are the custodians of our precious records,” the petition says.

“They record every birth, every marriage and every death that occurs in our state and assist with recognition of relationships, name changes and gender affirmation.

“Our private details and records should not be in private hands, at the mercy of profit-making interests who’ll want a return for their injection of billions of their corporation’s dollars.

“We can’t afford for our most private records, like our birth certificates, to be trusted to anyone but the public service.” 

The union says the registry, which has been in existance since 1853, should remain in public hand like its counterparts in every state and territory, and commercialisation will see the cost of registering and certifying key life events go up.

According to unnamed sources cited by The Melbourne Age, Mr Pallas met with stakeholders earlier this month where he talked up the benefits of opening up the registry to private investment.

A state government spokesman told The Age on August 19 that “Victoria’s Births, Deaths and Marriages service will not be privatised, but we are looking at how we can continue to improve the quality of government services.”

Government News has sought further comment from the Treasurer.