A victory for common sense

Well done to all the parties which have forced the Government to back down on the Births, Deaths, Marriages and Relationships Amendment Bill.

The Bill would have basically removed public access to the births, deaths and marriages registers.  While the motivation was stopping identity theft (which it would not stop), it would also have stopped journalists being able to verify claims from individuals, and massively affected historians, biographers etc.

This is not a minor change.  Barker had refused for months and months to make common sense changes.  But lacking the numbers to proceed, they have been forced to listen to the public.

It’s a very unsexy topic, but an important principle – public access to information.