The Victorian Law Reform Commission Enquiry
You can download all submissions to the Enquiry, including Rainbow Families Council's response to the final recommendations at the bottom of this page.
Background
In 2001 the Victorian Government made changes to a number of laws giving same-sex couples legal recognition in a number of areas. However, it decided to conduct further public consultation before reforming laws relevant to same-sex parented families.
In October 2002 the Victorian Attorney General asked the Victorian Law Reform Commission to conduct an enquiry into Assisted Reproductive Technology and Adoption, which covered a number of areas relevant to same-sex parented families and prospective parents. Since then the Commission has conducted a detailed research and consultation process into this complex area of law and social policy.
The campaign
Fertility Access Rights Lobby (FAR), the previous incarnation of the Rainbow Families Council, made a number of submissions to the Enquiry, which are available as PDF documents below.
FAR also established the Love Makes a Family campaign in December 2004 with broad aim of working for legal and social recognition of rainbow families, including by mobilising and supporting families and individuals to take part in the Commission's consultation processes.
This we did very successfully, with the Commission receiving more submissions on these issues than ever before on any issue. We organised events and used email and our website to inform people about the issue. People made many hundreds of submissions supporting change, and sharing personal stories of the impacts of the law on the lives of families and prospective parents.
What next?
The Victorian Law Reform Commission’s Final Report was tabled in the Victorian Parliament on 7 June 2007. The news for rainbow families and prospective parents is excellent. Recommendations include access to fertility services, adoption and altruistic surrogacy, decriminalising home insemination, and recognition of non-birth mothers via the birth certificate, whether conception was at home or a clinic. This would also be available for children born BEFORE the law changes.
Other recommendations include clarifying the legal status of donors, that gay clinic donors should not be effectively barred because of their sexuality but asked only about high-risk behaviours, and that anonymous clinic donors not be allowed to stop single women and lesbians using their donations. We now need to focus on the task of urging the Victorian government to make legislation that supports the rights of our children and families. Go to our Campaign news page to find out what you can do now to support the campaign. Stay tuned for more news as it breaks!
Key documents from the Commission
The Commission produced a number of detailed documents, aimed at informing submissions to the Enquiry. These are available on its website, or in hard copy by contacting the Commission. They are:
The Final Report of the Enquiry - Assisted Reproductive Technology and Adoption Final Report released 7 June 2007.
An initial Consultation Paper: Assisted Reproductive Technology and Adoption: Should the Current Eligibility Criteria in Victoria be Changed? released in 2004, including 56 key questions for those interesting in making submissions.
Three Occasional Papers released in 2004, summarising research in three key areas:
- ART Surrogacy and Legal Parentage: A Comparative Legislative Review by Adjunct Prof John Seymour, Australian National University and Sonia Magri, Victorian Law Reform Commission;
- The Convention on the Rights of the Child: The Rights and Best Interests of Children Conceived through Assisted Reproduction by John Tobin, Law School, University of Melbourne; and
- Outcomes for Children born of Assisted Reproductive Technology in a Diverse Range of Families by Dr Ruth McNair, Department of General Practice, University of Melbourne.
Three position papers released in 2005, including interim recommendations for public comment:
- Position Paper One: Access, which included information and interim recommendations about access to assisted reproductive technology, self-insemination, gamete donation, and posthumous use of gametes;
- Position Paper Two: Parentage and Adoption, including information and interim recommendations about how the law recognises parents, status of same-sex couples as parents, status of gamete donors, access to information about donors and children conceived with donated gametes, and adoption; and
- Position Paper Three: Surrogacy, including options for giving access to altruistic surrogacy.
Our response to the Enquiry
Rainbow Families Council, in our previous incarnation as the Fertility Access Rights Lobby, made submissions at every point in the Enquiry process. We were also involved in round table discussions convened by the Commission, and organised three public forums to discuss the Position Papers; two in collaboration with Absolutely Women's Health and one in collaboration with Gay Dads Victoria, at which Commission representatives spoke.
We organised two workshops to inform the community about how to make submissions, and various family events at which we distributed information about how to have a say in the Enquiry. We also used our website and email networks to mobilise and support rainbow families and prospective parents to speak up about how the law affects them, and what change they wanted to see.
Our submissions to the Enquiry were based on consultation with affected community members at the forums and other events, and an online survey on the former Love Makes a Family Website (now incorporated in this website). All were circulated for feedback to hundreds of members of rainbow families and prospective parents on the various community email lists.
Submissions to the Enquiry
You can download all of our submissions to the enquiry, including our response to the final recommendations below. A copy of the Prospective Lesbian Parents submission made in June 2004 can be found on their website. The PLP submission was coordinated by the Love Makes a Family campaign coordinators, and includes quotes from 25 women about the impacts of the current laws on them as prospective parents.
 Initial Enquiry Consultation Paper | downloads: 716 | type: pdf | size: 107 kB |
Fertility Access Rights Lobby (now Rainbow Families Council) response to the initial consultation paper of the VLRC Enquiry, June 2004 |
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| Access to fertility services | downloads: 659 | type: pdf | size: 84 kB |
Fertility Access Rights Lobby (now Rainbow Families Council) response to Position Paper 1 on access to fertility services, June 2005 |
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| Access to Parentage | downloads: 803 | type: pdf | size: 121 kB |
Joint Fertility Access Rights Lobby and Victorian Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby response to Position Paper 2 on Parentage, August 2005. |
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| Surrogacy | downloads: 643 | type: pdf | size: 91 kB |
Fertility Access Rights Lobby response to Position Paper 3 on Surrogacy, January 2006. |
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| Final recommendations | downloads: 647 | type: pdf | size: 75 kB |
Rainbow Families Council's official response to the Attorney General Rob Hulls, following the launch of the VLRC report and its 130 recommendations. |
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