COVER STORY
The debate over same-sex unions has fuelled questions about the value and purpose of marriage in the modern world
Australia has voted for marriage equality, but will that be enough to halt the decline in marriage rates? The drawn-out debate in the lead-up to the postal survey shone a spotlight on the institution as never before. Importantly for supporters of marriage equality, changing the law will give all Australians a choice about marriage, but what will the result of that choice be?
With a whole new cohort soon to be able to marry, rates are likely to rise in the short term, but will that be enough to arrest the long-term waning popularity of marriage in Australia? Could it even be that some Australians will think twice about buying into an institution that comes with so much ideological baggage?
As a child of divorcees, the debate made me question why, when my husband and I married in 2006, I so readily opted into something that worked out so badly for my parents. Surely we would be just as happy without the piece of paper? Or am I overlooking the invisible benefits of a legal right that has hitherto been denied to a significant part of the population?
Historical sociologist Pavla Miller from RMIT University says a positive side-effect of the acrimonious debate over same-sex marriage appears to be greater analysis of the institution in general.
“People on both sides of the fence will reflect on things they normally take for granted and do things in a more self-conscious manner,” says Miller, who predicts the “pent-up demand for marriage equality” is likely to reverse the declining trend in marriage rates in Australia, at least in the short term. “I suspect that all the good press about love and marriage might encourage some opposite-sex couples to marry as well. In the long run, it is difficult to predict what will happen.”
Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows a slow and steady decline in Australia’s crude marriage rate, down from 5.8 marriages per 1000 estimated resident population in 1996 to 4.9 marriages in 2016. Tasmania and the ACT are the only state and territories to record a decline in the actual number of marriages in the 20 years to 2016, which in Tasmania’s case is likely due to sluggish population growth and age profile. In 2016 there were just over 2500 marriages registered in Tasmania, 150 fewer than in 1996.
Mat Rowell, head of Relationships Australia in Tasmania, which is the body responsible for handling Family Court mediations and offering couples counselling on behalf of the Federal Government, says reasons for the decline in marriage rates include social acceptance of cohabiting couples and having children out of wedlock, as well as the demise of the traditional male-breadwinner family model.
“There’s a lot less pressure to find a husband and more and more single women are having babies because they choose to, either through IVF or informal relations,” Rowell says.
However, speaking from a personal point of view, Rowell says there are still symbolic and celebratory reasons for tying the knot. He and his partner Antony Logan married in 2015 in New Zealand, where same-sex marriage was legalised in 2013.
“We both decided it would be a lovely thing to do, not just for us but our family and friends as well,” Rowell says. “When the celebrants pronounced us husband and husband, my nephew threw his arms in the air and jumped up and said ‘Hallelujah’ and burst into tears. We didn’t expect everyone to be so emotional. It was very, very special.”
Tasmanian AFL star Ben Brown, 25, and Hester MacKinnon, 24, wed at historic Shene Estate and Distillery at Pontville in October. They considered holding off on legalising their marriage, but the North Melbourne player’s mother convinced them otherwise.
“We talked a lot about not registering our marriage until marriage equality came through,” MacKinnon says.
“I had a heart-to-heart with Ben’s mum and she said by getting married you’re saying to the world ‘this is symbolic and important’.
“She comes at marriage from a religious perspective but she really liked that there were [same-sex] people in Australia who wanted to get married.”
Unlike Brown, she says she did not grow up with a strong belief in marriage. “My parents divorced and so did a lot of other couples in my family, so I guess I didn’t have the biggest belief that marriage is meaningful until I met Ben, and particularly Ben’s parents,” she says.