A proposal to send the Assisted Reproductive Technology and Surrogacy Bill 2025 to parliament’s standing committee on legislation for deeper analysis and investigation has failed.
The long promised legislation is currently being debated in the Legislative Council and last week Liberal member Michelle Hofmann put forward a motion to send the bill to the legislation review committee arguing that more work was needed for politicians could vote on the proposed laws.
The move gained support from Labor member Kate Doust, Liberal MPs, Australian Christians and One Nation members.
The MPs argued the deeper analysis was needed despite a previous version of the legislation being considered by the same committee in 2019, alongside the government commissioned report from Professor Sonia Allen, and a parliamentary inquiry on the issue.
One Nation MLC Philip Scott accused the LGBTIQA+ communities of exploiting women by calling for greater access to surrogacy and reproductive technologies.
“It is disappointing that a minority group such as the LGBTIQ community would support and promote the exploitation of, and potential harms to, another minority group—women surrogates, and the infants they carry to term and surrender after birth. It would seem that human rights are not always as equal and compassionate as one might expect.” Scott said.
While Liberal MLC Simon Ehrenfeld argued that there was no urgency to update the laws and more time could be taken to investigate the effects they could potentially have. Ehrenfeld cited the slow progress the McGowan and Cook governments have made on the legislation as evidence it was not a priority for Western Australians.
When the proposal came to a vote on Tuesday afternoon it was defeated 20 votes to 16, with Labor, The Greens, Amanda Dorn from the Animal Justice Party and Dr Brian Walker from Legalise Cannabis joining forces to block the move.
The push to review the legislation at the committee was supported by Liberal, National, One Nation and Australian Christians members, and Labor’s Kate Doust.
The bill have now moved into the next stage of its development where the legislative council analyses the wording of the new laws line by line. It is expected that the final; p0assage of the bill is most likely to occur in November.
