In the news recently, there has been a lot of interest in the second child for Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban which was born via a surrogate. New laws in New South Wales due to come into effect in March mean that if parents were to pay a surrogate to have a third child, in NSW they might face prosecution.
In all states in Australia (except Tasmania which bans all surrogacy under the Surrogacy Contracts Act 1993), altruistic surrogacy has only recently become legal. However, in all states and the Australian Capital Territory arranging commercial surrogacy is a criminal offence, although the Northern Territory has no legislation governing surrogacy at all and there are no plans to introduce laws on surrogacy into the NT Legislative Assembly at any foreseeable point in the future.
The history of the law around Australia is that Victoria changed their legislation so that since 1 January 2010, under the Assisted Reproductive Treatment Act 2008 altruistic surrogacy within the state is legal, however commercial surrogacy is illegal. Since 1 June 2010 in Queensland, altruistic surrogacy is legal under the Surrogacy Act 2010 No 2. Commercial surrogacy is illegal under the legislation. Similarly, altruistic surrogacy in both New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory is legal under the Surrogacy Act 2010 No 102 and the Parentage Act 2004, respectably. In Western Australia (under the Surrogacy Act 2008) and South Australia (under the Family Relationships Act 1975) altruistic surrogacy is only legal for couples consisting of the opposite sex (single people and same sex couples are banned from altruistic surrogacy). Sometime in 2011 Tasmania will introduce the Surrogacy Bill to the parliament, after a community consultation process
If you would like some advice in relation to surrogacy laws in Australia, please do not hesitate to contact us about your surrogacy law issue. We will be more than happy to assist and firmly believe in your right to surrogacy.