Ms Claire O'Connell:

I thank the Senator for the questions. I might start by explaining to everyone that the presumption of paternity is based on two things. First is registration on the birth certificate and second is marriage. It is dealt with at the moment by section 46 of the Status of Children Act 1987. So interestingly, in the Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Bill 2022 we have a section that excludes it from consideration. There is a section in the 2022 bill that states that section 46 of the 1987 Act does not apply to parental orders in the context of domestic surrogacy. The surrogate's husband domestically is not presumed, therefore, to be the father and we do not need to dispense with his consent. When I first read that I thought it was great that a long-established principle can be changed just because we choose to do so and because we create a new framework.

The Senator asked if I am concerned about the effect it might then have on contacts outside of surrogacy or assisted human reproduction, AHR. There is a simple answer to that; when we make legislation like the Children and Family Relationships Act 2015 and when we hopefully pass the Health (Assisted Human Reproduction) Bill 2022, we are setting out completely new contexts. We are not applying it to every person who comes through the parentage pathway. We are applying it to the process of parentage where there is no genetic link or where there is no gestational link. It is quite simple and has been done already in the proposals. It is simple to disapply that from those contexts-----