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.
Written Response, Received 25/06/2024
Thank you for your question about assisted reproductive treatment reforms.
The Minister for Health is responsible for the Assisted Reproductive Treatment Act 2008 (ART Act), and for the administration of the system of Assisted Reproductive Treatment (ART) in Victoria, including surrogacies assisted by ART services. The Minister for Health commissioned the Gorton Review and has been leading its implementation since 2019.
It is sometimes necessary to consequentially amend the Status of Children Act 1974 (SOC Act) to ensure that Victoria’s legal settings with respect to donor and surrogate births are consistent and straightforward for Victorian families, and this is my responsibility.
For example, the Assisted Reproductive Treatment Amendment (Consent) Act 2019 amended both the SOC Act and the ART Act to expand surrogacy counselling requirement. A surrogacy counsellor can now either be a person employed for that purpose by an ART provider or a person who meets prescribed requirements for a surrogacy counsellor.
The Department of Justice and Community Safety continues to work with the Department of Health as it works its way through the recommendations of the Gorton Review.
The remainder of the question should be directed to the Minister for Health, as the minister leading the implementation of the Gorton Review, for further response.
Jaclyn Symes MP
Attorney-General
Minister for Emergency Services
