The Queensland attorney general has recently announced that they will change the surrogacy act, and the changes are expected to be introduced to parliament in 1-2 months time. The changes will be based on Springborg’s bill of 2009, from what I know. The bill proposes to criminalise, and not merely to prevent the entering into and offering to enter into of an ineligible surrogacy arrangement. This would make Queensland the only jurisdiction in Australia to do so. I am especially concerned about the position of fertility service providers. As entering into an ineligible surrogacy agreement will not only be invalid but actually illegal, I am concerned that health care providers who provide services to surrogates in such agreements may be in breach of the law by being accessories to a crime. Asking de-facto couples if their relationship is of at least two years standing in the legal sense is not only difficult for the doctor-patient relationship, it is also, to the best of my knowledge, against the federal Sex Discrimination Act (discrimination of marital status in the provision of IVF has been ruled illegal in McBain v Victoria 2000). As such, there is no way a health care provider can be sure they are not breaking the law then!
I was also alerted to another point about health care providers and the federal Sex Discrimination Act by the Queensland Law Society recently. According to QLS President Dr John de Groot, the refusal to provide fertility services to single people is illegal under the federal act, and as I know no state act can override this requirement. Therefore, doctors actually have to provide IVF services to couples even if they are undertaking unlawful surrogacy if approached to do so. Again, this may indeed be criminal according to how the legislation is written. I’m concerned that ultimately doctors will just cease providing surrogacy related services.

I think it's time gays accepted the fact that they are not main stream and need to get over it.

I'm not talking about 'the gays' here. Please don't give a knee-jerk reaction.
I'm talking about something that will affect many 'mainstream' Queenslanders, and it's an issue that should be seriously considered. I'm seriously concerned that the government is trying to bury all the important issues here, by making it seem like a gays-only issue.

rehctub, there is no such thing as 'mainstream'. We are all individuals. You are not the same as your neighbour. Heterosexuality is not a definition of a group of like-minded, similarly behaving people. This applies to all humans. Stamp collectors are not all alike, Blue-eyed people can never be classified as a homogenous group. it is equally stupid to speak about gays as if they are all the same. they're as different from each other as you are from Ivan Milat.
It is this pernicious thinking that allows the same bigoted and stupid attorney general to declare that 'panic defence' is a valid excuse to murder someone. He wants this explicitly enshrined in Queensland law so that any homophobe who is smiled at by someone he thinks is not a real Aussie bloke, can legitimately bash him to death. 'I panicked, your Honour! This queer came on to me.'
'Fair enough, I declare you not guilty. Go free and gay bash some more.'

Butcher,

I don't believe that the government should should have any right to prohibit such a personal issue. Regulation should only protect those involved .

One in four couples can't have children and the Liberal National Party want to ban surrogacy? Idiots. Our population isn't even giving birth fast enough to counter our death rate and these half witted, pot bellied, lazy, useless, pompous, bow legged gits think its a good idea to tell women they can't get pregnant and help the population along! Whatsa their answer? Let me guess. More bloody immigrants. Like we aren't already taking too many. Half the doctors out there can't speak english. Last time I went to a health clinic a female "doctor" googled my symptoms. I got no help at all but still had to pay for their alleged service. There are too many immigrants now.

My wife couldn't bear children and the stress was a major factor in our divorce after nearly a decade together. Governments have no right to interfere in family matters like this. When will all this micro-management of our lives end? Its disgusting. I blame religion. Half these stuck up pratts in parliament base their ideology on supernatural rubbish like christianity. Only morons base their thinking on ancient fantasy novels like the bible.