QUEENSLANDERS have just over a week to vote for a new Maroons-themed birth certificate and a chance to win tickets to State of Origin Game III in Brisbane.
The Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages wants Queenslanders to choose from four designs, with the most popular design to be made available to order in early July.
Registrar-General David John said the competition was a novel way for Queenslanders to support the Maroons and also highlighted the importance of the need for birth registration.
“Birth certificates are critical proof of identity documents and are needed to enrol in school, play organised sport, get a tax file number and get a driver licence,” Mr John said.
“The Maroons brand is helping us raise awareness of the need to have a birth certificate, particularly in those rural and remote communities.
“The four designs are available on the Queensland Government website at qld.gov.au/maroons and those who vote for the winning design go into the draw to win two tickets and travel to the final Origin game in Brisbane.
“When voting, people can also request to be notified of when the winning certificate design will be available for purchase. They’d make a great gift not only for Maroons fans, but any proud Queenslander.”
Mr John said the initiative will also deliver real community benefits with the proceeds from certificate sales being invested in direct service delivery to remote and Indigenous Queenslanders.
“In the last month, Registry staff have spent time in Doomadgee, Aurukun and Palm Island resulting in 180 birth certificates being issued, 50 of them to people who had never before had their birth registered.”
Australian Bureau of Statistics Regional Director (Queensland) Dr AJ Lanyon said the Maroons birth certificate competition was an innovative community engagement strategy.
“Initiatives such as this importantly help improve the quality and completeness of Queensland's population statistics through improving the number of birth registrations,” Dr Lanyon said.
“Such improvements benefit a number of important national programs including ‘Closing the Gap’ by ensuring that better information is available to measure impact and outcomes for the community.”
Voting is open at www.qld.gov.au/maroons until 5pm on Friday, June 20, 2014.
