Andrew Broad (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I wish to talk on an issue that is a little bit sensitive and a little bit controversial. Children, of course, are a gift and the ability to have a family is something that we all aspire to. For some—myself included—it eludes us, and then we look at fostering and other things.

We support people who want to endeavour to have children through IVF. We have a legal framework around surrogacy. I want to touch on offshore surrogacy. Australian law allows for a surrogate mother in Australia to be a surrogate mother but certainly not to receive a commercial benefit from doing so. Three of our states—New South Wales, the ACT and Queensland—currently essentially stop, or make illegal, offshore surrogacy.

If a law protects a citizen of Australia because of a principle that we believe in, I believe the principle should run through so that a woman who is not an Australian citizen is also to be protected under Australian law. As we think through the issue of offshore surrogacy we are bound by focus on the rights of the child, by our human rights agreements, but there does not appear to be enough talk about the rights of the surrogate mother. I think this is a space that we need to have a very real discussion in.

Australia is one of the most active countries in the world for surrogacy and for some this has delivered a beautiful child for their family. My fear is that the paying of money to a surrogate mother in a poor country has the risk of serious exploitation, in recognition of the fact that that woman is not protected by Australian law. It has the risk of pressures upon that woman. It has the risk of major exploitation of that woman, including whether, in some instances, she actually gets paid. There is a real discussion to be had around how we, as the Australian government, ensure that if surrogacy is going to take place, and it is taking place, we protect the surrogate mothers in those poor countries.

We are all putting our hands on our hearts today and talking about White Ribbon Day and support for women in domestic violence situations. But the principle has to run true that we have to find a way of ensuring that Australian law protects a surrogate mother. We can do this. We do this with paedophilia overseas. We prosecute if someone partakes in something that is against our principles overseas. I think there is a real discussion to be had on this. It is something we should tackle. It is something that average Australians think we can do better on.

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