Child Safety Minister Phil Reeves announced provision of $1.2 million over three years for adoption support services, with a statewide post-adoption service offering "information, support and counselling to those affected by past or present adoptions in Queensland".
Premier Bligh, in responding to questions about whether gay and lesbian couples would be allowed to adopt children in Queensland, said that there is almost no chance of that happening. Proponents of 'no same-sex adoption until hell freezes over' might have benefited from a new paper by Elizabeth Burleson on 'International Human Rights Law, Co-Parent Adoption, and the Recognition of Gay and Lesbian Families' [here].
Burleson argues that children would benefit substantially from legal recognition of same-sex marriages and parenting. Her paper analyses international human rights law, co-parent adoption, and the recognition of gay and lesbian families. It addresses civil marriage and adoption challenges for same sex families, in particular looking at European Court of Human Rights jurisprudence relating to same-sex adoption and efforts to implement the 'best interest of the child' standard.
Human rights advocates are unlikely to be satisfied with the Government's announcement (18 August Hansard 1593) [PDF] that same-sex couples would be included in forthcoming legislation to decriminalise altruistic surrogacy. Commercial surrogacy (ie surrogacy done for profit) will continue to be illegal and no financial gain will be permitted other than reimbursement to the birth mother for reasonable hospital, medical and other associated expenses. Advertising for surrogacy births will also remain prohibited.
The rationale for the inclusion, egregiously inconsistent with exclusion from adoption, is that
We will do this because each and every Queenslander who wants to become a parent should be allowed the opportunity to do so. We will do this because anyone who is unable to conceive a baby but who wants to become a parent should know the joy of bringing a child into the world, providing them with life lessons, shaping their future and guiding them into adulthood. We will do this on an across-the-board basis, not shying away from the difficult and controversial choices. Today I can advise the House that same-sex parents will be included among those who will be affected by the decriminalisation of surrogacy because everyone, regardless of their sexual status or their gender, should be afforded the privileges of parenthood.
