Recent Change to SA Laws Adversely Affecting Lesbian Co-parents
Wednesday 13 July 2016 @ 10.53 a.m. | Legal Research | Torts, Damages & Civil Liability
Recently, the Family Relationships (Parentage Presumptions) Amendment Bill 2015 (SA) was assented to and commenced on 23 June 2016, as the Family Relationships (Parentage Presumptions) Amendment Act 2016 (being Act No 30 of 2016). The legislation, introduced as a Private Members Bill by the Hon Tammy Franks MLC (Greens), repeals a rule unique to South Australia, and somewhat out of step with most contemporary views, requiring female parents using donor sperm at home or in a clinic to be living together for at least three years before they could be listed on their child’s birth certificate.
As a result of the amendments made by Act No 30 of 2016, female co-parents in South Australia who conceive a child through donor sperm at home or in a clinic will now both be recognised on the child's birth certificate, without the need to have lived together for a minimum of three years.
Background to the Act
The amending legislation amends the Family Relationships Act 1975 (SA) by making changes to section 10C which deals with the rules relating to parentage, as well as making related changes to Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1996 (SA) by amending section 14 which deals with how to have the birth of a child registered and section 46 which deals with the issuing of a birth certificate.
The Bill creating the amending legislation was passed in the South Australian House of Assembly this year (2016), having already passed the Legislative Council in June 2015. In deliberations on the Bill, both the government and the opposition allowed their members to have a conscience vote during the debate on the legislation. When it came to voting in the Assembly, the result was a majority 29 voting in favour of the Bill, with 12 voting against the Bill.
Comment
Commenting on the amending legislation Greens MLC Tammy Franks, the legislation's sponsor, is reported to have said that she:
". . . was glad the Bill finally passed . . . [and that] . . . It’s quite emotional – I heard a story from one of the affected families who said that their girl ran into school to announce to her class that both of her parents can be on her birth certificate now, . . .”
“This law was a South Australian oddity . . . it could’ve been fixed by the government but it took the 'chutzpah' of Sally and Elise [the lesbian couple who motivated Ms Franks to introduce the Bill] to stand up for their son and help to change it.”
Commenting on the amending legislation, Rainbow Labor SA co-convenor Thomas Mooney was also reported as welcoming the changes to the law and saying also that more remained to be done:
“South Australia used to be a leader on these kinds of issues, we were the first to decriminalise homosexuality . . . This is a great step forward but unfortunately we’re still lagging behind.”
He also observes that the enactment of the amending legislation is the first in what is being described as a busy year for "LGBTI law reform in South Australia" - referencing the South Australian Law Reform Institute plan to deliver reports on the laws around sexual reassignment, surrogacy, and exceptions in the equal opportunity legislation as the reason for saying this, and pointing out that everyone of those areas of human rights still has “. . . areas of outstanding discrimination [which] has a real impact on members of the LGBTI community,”
Given, that the dust is now settled on the Federal election of 2016 and it is very likely that the proposed "Gay Marriage Plebiscite" will also proceed, it may not be just South Australia where it will prove to be a very busy year for LGBTI law reform.
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Sources:
Family Relationships (Parentage Presumptions) Amendment Bill 2015 (No. 21 of 2015) and Family Relationships (Parentage Presumptions) Amendment Act 2016 (No. 30 of 2016) and secondary materials as reported in TimeBase LawOne Service.
