Marriage Act 1961

Subject to this section, a prescribed authority may, upon application in writing by a minor, dispense with the consent of a person to a proposed marriage of the minor where the prescribed authority:

is satisfied that it is impracticable, or that it is impracticable without delay that would, in all the circumstances of the case, be unreasonable, to ascertain the views of that person with respect to the proposed marriage;

has no reason to believe that that person would refuse his or her consent to the proposed marriage; and

has no reason to believe that facts may exist by reason of which it could reasonably be considered improper that the consent should be dispensed with.

An application under this section shall be supported by a statutory declaration by the applicant setting out the facts and circumstances on which the application is based and may be supported by the statutory declaration of some other person.

The applicant shall state in his or her statutory declaration whether he or she has made any previous applications under this section that have been refused and the date on which each such application was refused.

This section does not authorise a prescribed authority to dispense with the consent of a person to a marriage of a minor where any other person whose consent to the marriage is required by this Act has refused to give consent, unless a magistrate or a Judge has, in pursuance of this Part, given consent in place of the consent of that other person.

For the purposes of this section, the fact that a person does not reside in, or is absent from, Australia shall not of itself be deemed to make it impracticable to ascertain the views of that person.