20th March 2024 17:52pm
Victorian Legislative Council, Melbourne
Rachel PAYNE (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (17:52): (798)
My adjournment matter is for the Attorney-General. Surrogacy provides people with a life-changing opportunity to grow their family. A surrogate graciously agrees to carry and give birth to a child on behalf of another person or couple who are the child’s intended family. For many surrogacy is the only option that they have left, and it is an incredibly financially and emotionally taxing experience.
This is why it is particularly important that our assisted reproductive treatment laws are well crafted. To this end in 2019 there was an independent review of assisted reproductive treatment in Victoria conducted by Michael Gorton AM. This review consulted widely with stakeholders involved in or impacted by assisted reproductive treatment. It found that the current regulatory framework is no longer fit for purpose and fails to put people at the centre of fertility care.
As it stands the access, affordability, quality of care and support do not hold up to what Victorians expect.
Thankfully some of the issues identified in this review have already been responded to in the legislative changes by the Victorian government; however, this review has not been responded to in full. We now risk falling behind other jurisdictions which already have amendments to surrogacy laws before their parliaments.
Some recommendations yet to be implemented include removing the demeaning requirement that same-sex couples prove that they are unable to become pregnant to access surrogacy arrangements; others include expanding the scope of who may provide counselling in respect of surrogacy arrangements, ending the prohibition on the use of surrogates’ eggs, streamlining parentage orders and permitting advertising in relation to altruistic surrogacy.
Addressing the shortcomings of the existing regulatory framework is essential to ensuring that more Victorians can become parents through surrogacy. Doing so will allow more people to experience the joy of being able to have families of their own. The action I seek is that the Attorney-General bring forward legislation that will implement the recommendations of the independent review of assisted reproductive treatment in Victoria in full.
[ANSWER PENDING]
