[Greens-Media] Assisted Reproductive Treatment (ART) Bill referred for further scrutiny (Sue Pennicuik MLC Vic)

[Amanda.Sharp at parliament.vic.gov.au]

Thursday 13 November 2008

Assisted Reproductive Treatment (ART) Bill referred for further scrutiny

Greens MP Sue Pennicuik today supported a motion to refer the ART Bill 
2008 to the Legislation Committee of the state upper house. The referral 
occurred after the bill passed the second reading stage with a close vote 
of 20 to 18.

"The Legislation Committee is able to scrutinise bills and question the 
responsible minister and report back to the House, including recommending 
changes or amendments," said Ms Pennicuik.

Ms Pennicuik criticised the government for not allowing sufficient time 
for consultation and consideration of the ART bill. "While there has been 
years of public discussion around the Victorian Law Reform Commission 
inquiry into this issue, the bill itself has not been around very long. 
Not enough time has been allowed for proper consideration of the many 
aspects of the bill," she said.

"The government should release these significant social bills as exposure 
drafts and undertake consultations with the community and other 
parliamentarians in order to achieve as much support as possible for them. 
Instead it has tried to rush this through in a couple of weeks at the end 
of the year.

"The Greens are totally supportive of the removal of any discrimination 
regarding access to assisted reproductive technology that is in this bill, 
but we have drafted a number of amendments including the removal of police 
checks* and the inclusion of access for all donor-conceived persons to 
their biological origins.** All donor-conceived persons should be able to 
access information about their biological origins. 

"Other areas of concern are the number of families that can be created 
with gametes from a single donor - in NSW it is five, in this bill, it is 
ten - and the regulation of surrogacy arrangements also requires careful 
scrutiny and consideration," she said. 

The ART bill will return to the upper house in the last sitting week of 
the year.


Further information: Sue Pennicuik   0409 055 875

* Victoria is the only jurisdiction that includes police checks in its 
legislation, apart from South Australia where the law requires people to 
sign statutory declarations regarding any convictions for sex offences, 
violence or child protection orders. 

**At present, donor-conceived persons born after 1997 have access to 
information about their genetic identity, those born between 1988 and 1997 
can access the information if the donor agrees and those born before 1988 
cannot access the information at all. 


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