(Canberra) The Australian Capital Territory’s three-month-old civil union law is being hailed as an unqualified success.

With spring about to arrive in Australia, Corbell predicted even more couples would unite.

The Civil Partnerships Act was passed by the ACT Legislative Assembly in May after the territory agreed to a stipulation from the federal government that there be no formal ceremonies.

The federal government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said that if the ACT bill allowed for ceremonies it would contravene a federal law limiting marriage to opposite sex couples. The law was enacted by the former Liberal government of John Howard and Labor’s Rudd has refused to consider repeal.

The territorial government maintained that ceremonies were a matter of equality, but faced with a veto, pulled the bill and removed the clause.

The amended version, which was worked out with the federal government, passed the territorial legislature with little difficulty. A similar bill passed in 2006 but was overturned by Howard.

Although same-sex couples are not allowed to have ceremonies at the Registrar General’s office, several have had private ceremonies.

The Civil Partnerships law gives same-sex couples most of the rights married couples have under territorial law, but does not include federal marriage rights.

Despite objections to the territorial civil union bill, Rudd’s federal government announced plans earlier this year to amend about 100 federal laws to provide limited benefits to same-sex couples.

The amendments mainly involve pension laws which will be amended to recognize same-sex partners in much the same way as the partners are recognized in an opposite-sex marriage.

The changes also will guarantee partners the right to visit each other in the hospital and make medical decisions. The revised laws will also recognize gay couples at senior citizen and nursing homes.

Federal attorney general Robert McClelland said the government expects the revisions to be completed by mid-2009.

A third of Australia’s eight states and territories have varying laws providing some benefits to same-sex couples but the ACT law is considered the strongest.

Among Australia’s population of 21 million people, more than 40,000 are in same-sex relationships, a government report found last year.