The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) collects about $3 million annually in marriage licence fees from lovebirds, with some of that cash now being used to upgrade a computer system which is more than three decades old.
Figures obtained under the Official Information Act show a total of $3 million in revenue was collected by Births, Deaths and Marriages (BDM) from marriage licence fees during the 2018/19 financial year, which are required to be paid before a couple can legally tie the knot.
A total of 22,403 marriage licences were issued during that period, as well as 74 civil union licences, and the base fee is $150 - couples that want a basic, half-hour ceremony at a local registry office also have to pay another $90 on top.
The marriage licence fee was raised 22 per cent, from $122.60 to $150, while a marriage licence including a ceremony went up 38 per cent, from $173.70 to $240.
1 NEWS asked the DIA to provide some context on the fee rise, and the justification of charging such a fee for what some couples might consider to be basic administration.
Clare Toufexis - DIA's acting manager of branch development and support service delivery and operations - said the 2017 fee increase was done on a cost-recovery basis, and said some of the money is now going towards upgrading extremely outdated computer systems.
"The cost includes not only the time of the Registrar in processing the licence (and, where relevant, conducting the ceremony) but also the cost to register the marriage, and to maintain and continuously improve secure online systems which work with the variety of devices and browsers," Ms Toufexis said.
The DIA said five people are employed as registration officers to process the licences, and they are each in a salary band of between $44,747 and $63,241.
Registrar-General Jeff Montgomery said the $150 fee covers not only the staff to issue the licence and later register the marriage, but also costs like technology support, office space, a contact centre, auxiliary staff, data archiving, lawyers fees, and now, the upgrade of the archaic computer system.
"It covers all of the costs - there's absolutely no taxpayer money that goes into the marriage system as a whole - everything has to be paid for by the people getting married," Mr Montgomery said.
"We've got a 1989 computer system that sits behind all of this, and that's needing to be replaced, so when the fees were set last year that was built in, and that's why the fees have gone up."
Mr Montgomery said the fees, by all rights, should have been increased much earlier than they were, but a lack of political appetite during the previous government meant it never happened.
"Previous governments were unwilling to increase the fee - governments never like increasing fees - and we were unable to modernise our whole process."
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The DIA's marriage licence account had been running at a deficit for years, Mr Montgomery said, and by the end of the 2015/16 financial year, an account debt of almost $2 million had built up.
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) was asked to come up with a fee structure to propose to Cabinet which would erase the debt.
"The fees weren't covering the basic costs," Mr Montgomery said.
The increase was accepted by Cabinet and has now led to an annual profit of "a few hundred thousand" and a current surplus of about $400,000.
The account surplus would continue to build over the next few years until the department has enough to upgrade their computer system, "which has blue screens and white writing on it".
"It's really antiquated," Mr Montgomery said, "so we're saving up to buy the new computer system."
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Mr Montgomery said the fees also help pay for the administration of marriage celebrant licensing, which is currently being looked at due to the high number of celebrants who perform very few marriages per year.
The DIA consulted on the proposed fee increases for a month in late 2016, with the majority of respondents - mostly celebrants - saying they were OK with the increase.
President of the Celebrants Association of New Zealand Dianne Troup said "CANZ was part of the consultative process when a fee increase was mooted, and whilst no-one wants to see cost increases, we weren't opposed to it as we understood the need for the increase and the long term benefits.
"Ironically, in the overall scheme of a lot of weddings, this fee, and indeed the fee for the celebrant, are probably the least expensive components," Mr Troup said.
However some celebrants had expressed concerns that either the fees didn't appear to be justified, or that they were already too expensive for some couples.
Some believed that, with improving online technology adoption, the amount of work required to handle the administration of a marriage licence should actually be decreasing, so a fee increase seemed unusual.
The couple were left out of pocket when a wedding venue got into financial strife.
Asked whether a $150 fee was affordable for people already faced with a whopping wedding bill, Mr Montgomery said it's up to individuals whether they get married or not.
"People don't have to get married, it is a choice," he said.
"Like any service it can look expensive on the surface - I bought a cup of coffee this morning, it was $5, that seems like a lot for a one-minute job, but there's all of the costs that sit behind it.
"Hopefully it's a once-in-a-lifetime expense."
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