1Short title
This is the Succession to the Crown Act 2015.
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Bill homepageThis is the Succession to the Crown Act 2015.
This Act comes into operation as follows —
sections 1 and 2 — on the day on which this Act receives the Royal Assent (assent day);
the rest of the Act, other than Parts 3 and 4 — on the day after assent day;
Part 3 — on a day fixed by proclamation, and —
different days may be fixed for different provisions; and
the time at which a provision comes into operation may be fixed;
Part 4 — on the day and at the time that section 10 of the requested Commonwealth Act comes into operation.
In this Part and Part 4 —
requested Commonwealth Act means the Act the enactment of which is requested by section 6.
In Parts 3 and 4 —
Act of Settlement means the Act of England known by that title;
Bill of Rights means the Act of England known by that title;
Crown means the Crown in all the capacities in respect to which the Parliament of the State has the power to legislate.
The main object of this Act is that the law relating to the effect of gender and marriage on royal succession be changed consistently with changes made to that law in other Australian jurisdictions and in the United Kingdom, so that the Sovereign of Australia is the same person as the Sovereign of the United Kingdom.
It is not the intention of this Act to affect the relationship between the Sovereign and the State as existing immediately before its enactment or that that relationship be in any way affected by the enactment by the Parliament of the Commonwealth of the requested Commonwealth Act.
The Parliament requests the enactment by the Parliament of the Commonwealth of an Act in the terms, or substantially in the terms, set out in Schedule 1.
Subsection (1) is not affected or limited in any way by any other provision of this Act.
In determining the succession to the Crown, the gender of a person born after 28 October 2011 (by United Kingdom time) does not give that person, or that person’s descendants, precedence over any other person (whenever born).
A person is not disqualified from succeeding to the Crown or from possessing it as a result of marrying a person of the Roman Catholic faith.
Subsection (1) applies in relation to marriages occurring before the commencement of this section if the person concerned is alive at that commencement (as well as in relation to marriages occurring after that commencement).
A person is disqualified from succeeding to the Crown if the person is disqualified by section 3(3) of the Succession to the Crown Act 2013 of the United Kingdom, as in force at the commencement of this section, from succeeding to the Crown in right of the United Kingdom.
References to an Act in this section are to that Act so far as it is part of the law of the State.
In the Act of Settlement:
in the Preamble delete “or marry a papist”;
in the Preamble delete “or marrying”;
in section 2 delete “or shall marry a papist”.
In the Bill of Rights:
in section 1 delete “or by any King or Queene marrying a papist”;
in section 1 delete “or shall marry a papist”;
in section 1 delete “or marrying”.
The amendments made by this section apply in relation to marriages occurring before the commencement of this section if the person concerned is alive at that commencement (as well as in relation to marriages occurring after that commencement).
The Royal Marriages Act 1772 of Great Britain, so far as that Act is part of the law of the State, is repealed.
A marriage that was void under the Royal Marriages Act 1772 of Great Britain, so far as that Act was part of the law of the State before its repeal by section 11, is to be treated as never having been void if —
neither party to the marriage was one of the 6 persons next in the line of succession to the Crown at the time of the marriage; and
no consent was sought under section 1 of that Act, or notice given under section 2 of that Act, in respect of the marriage; and
in all the circumstances it was reasonable for the person concerned not to have been aware at the time of the marriage that the Act applied to it; and
no person acted, before the commencement of this subsection, on the basis that the marriage was void.
Subsection (1) applies for all purposes except those relating to succession to the Crown.
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