Polygamy is not legally recognised in Australia. Legally recognised
polygamous marriages may not be performed in
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
, and a person who marries another person, knowing that the previous marriage is still subsisting, commits an offence of
bigamy
In cultures where monogamy is mandated, bigamy is the act of entering into a marriage with one person while still legally married to another. A legal or de facto separation of the couple does not alter their marital status as married persons. I ...
under section 94 of the
Marriage Act 1961, which carries a maximum penalty of 5 years imprisonment. However, the offence of bigamy only applies to attempts to contract a legally recognised marriage; it does not apply to polygamous marriages where there is no attempt to gain recognition for the marriage under Australian law. Whether or not either or both partners were aware of the previous subsisting marriage, the second marriage is
void
Void may refer to:
Science, engineering, and technology
* Void (astronomy), the spaces between galaxy filaments that contain no galaxies
* Void (composites), a pore that remains unoccupied in a composite material
* Void, synonym for vacuum, a s ...
. Foreign polygamous marriages are not recognized in Australia. However, a foreign marriage that is not polygamous but could potentially become polygamous at a later date under the law of the country where the marriage took place is recognized in Australia while any subsequent polygamous marriage is not.
[ While under Australian law a person can be in at most one legally valid marriage at a time, Australian law does recognise that a person can be in multiple ]de facto
''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...
relationships concurrently, and as such entitled to the legal rights extended to members of de facto relationships.
In 2008, Australia's then Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general.
In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...
Robert McClelland said that "There is absolutely no way that the government will be recognising polygamist relationships. They are unlawful and they will remain as such. Under Australian law, marriage is defined as the union of a man and woman to the exclusion of all others. Polygamous marriage necessarily offends this definition." (Subsequently, the changed the legal definition from "the union of a man and a woman" to "the union of two persons".) Former High Court Judge, the Hon. Michael Kirby said in 2012, "Human relationships are complicated, but these, I would respectfully suggest, are issues for the future".
Section 6 of the Family Law Act 1975 provides for recognition of polygamous marriages, entered in to outside Australia, for the purposes of proceedings under this Act.
Family Court ruling
On 4 March 2016, the Full Court of the Family Court of Australia ruled in the case Ghazel & Ghazel and Anor that a polygamous marriage is illegal in Australia but a foreign marriage, which is ‘potentially polygamous’ when it is entered into, will be recognised as a valid marriage in Australia. A marriage is ‘potentially polygamous’ if it is not polygamous but the law in the country where the original marriage took place allows a polygamous marriage of one or both partners to the original marriage at a later date. The court also ruled that if the husband took a second wife, the second marriage would not be legally recognised while the husband was still married to his first wife. It is worth noting that this was the opposite holding to the classic English case Hyde v. Hyde
''Hyde v Hyde'' is a landmark case of the English Court of Probate and Divorce. The case was heard 20 March 1866 before Lord Penzance, and established the common law definition of marriage.
Facts of the case
John Hyde, an English Mormon w ...
, which found that a marriage under laws which permit polygamy would not be recognised under English law (however, the common law of marriage has been since extinguished by legislation, which is why the decision in Hyde is not directly relevant to contemporary Australian law).
Social security
Australian social security law recognises that multiple partners are assessed exactly the same as any other person, with no additional payments for having multiple partners.
Prevalence
Indigenous communities
Polygamous relationships exist within some indigenous communities.
Islamic communities
A small number of Islamist leaders advocated the legalisation of polygamous marriages in Australia, which stirred controversial and emotional debate. According to an SBS, Insight
Insight is the understanding of a specific cause and effect within a particular context. The term insight can have several related meanings:
*a piece of information
*the act or result of understanding the inner nature of things or of seeing intu ...
program seeking to answer the question, "How common is polygamy in Australia?" despite the stereotype of a Muslim having up to four wives, polygamy in the Islamic world is quite rare, and it is even rarer in Australia. Proponents of polygamy have claimed that legalisation would "protect the rights of women," while opponents have claimed that it would "endanger the Australian way of life."
General community
In the 2012 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras
The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras or Sydney Mardi Gras is an event in Sydney, New South Wales attended by hundreds of thousands of people from around Australia and overseas. One of the largest such festivals in the world, Mardi Gras is the ...
which was themed "universal and infinite love", the polyamory float featured a, "huge retro style rocket ship". The 2014 Mardi Gras hosted the, "Polyamory Sydney ‘Birds of a Feather, love together’ – the infinite love Nest".
In 2013, the 'Polyamory
Polyamory () is the practice of, or desire for, romantic relationships with more than one partner at the same time, with the informed consent of all partners involved. People who identify as polyamorous may believe in open relationships wit ...
Action Lobby' submitted a petition to federal parliament saying, "For too long has Australia denied people the right to marry the ones they care about. We find this abhorrent. We believe that everyone should be allowed to marry their partners, and that the law should never be a barrier to love. And that's why we demand nothing less than the full recognition of polyamorous families."
In 2014 and 2015 further recognition for, and acceptance of, polygamy was sought.
A number of Australian Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
sites are dedicated to polyamory, including 'Sydney Polyamory' and 'Poly Mardi Gras Float'. Others are dedicated to polygamy, including a website set up to assist men in finding a second wife reported to have 750 Australian members.
The functioning of monogamish
Savage Love is a syndicated sex-advice column by Dan Savage. The column appears weekly in several dozen newspapers, mainly free newspapers in the US and Canada, but also newspapers in Europe and Asia. It started in 1991 with the first issue of t ...
and throuple relationships are being explored. Concern has been raised with both redefining relationships as, "primarily about adult desire".
See also
*Group marriage
Group marriage or conjoint marriage is a marital arrangement where three or more adults enter into sexual, affective, romantic, or otherwise intimate short- or long-term partnerships, and share in any combination of finances, residences, care ...
*Marriage in Australia
Marriage in Australia is regulated by the federal government, which is granted the power to make laws regarding marriage by section 51(xxi) of the constitution. The '' Marriage Act 1961'' applies uniformly throughout Australia (including its ext ...
*Monogamy
Monogamy ( ) is a form of dyadic relationship in which an individual has only one partner during their lifetime. Alternately, only one partner at any one time (serial monogamy) — as compared to the various forms of non-monogamy (e.g., polyga ...
*Polygamy
Crimes
Polygamy (from Late Greek (') "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, sociologists call this polygyny. When a woman is married ...
References
{{Polygamous marriage
Marriage in Australia
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...