Bligh won't follow gay adoption move

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Bligh won't follow gay adoption move

By Daniel Hurst

The Bligh government will retain a ban on same-sex couples adopting children, despite NSW parliamentarians moving towards allowing the practice.

The NSW lower house this week narrowly passed a bill permitting gay and lesbian adoption after the major parties allowed their members a conscience vote.

Queensland MPs agreed to grant same-sex couples access to children through altruistic surrogacy when the parliament decriminalised the practice early this year, and gay partners are already allowed to be foster parents.

But the Bligh government yesterday showed it was in no rush to follow NSW parliamentarians in removing restrictions on homosexual couples adopting children.

The stance has attracted criticism from equal rights groups and prompted an opposition MP to accuse the government of hypocrisy.

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh referred questions on the matter to Child Safety Minister Phil Reeves, who said the current arrangements would remain unchanged.

“The government doesn't have any intention of changing the laws to allow same-sex couples to adopt Australian-born children,” he said in a statement.

Mr Reeves said altruistic surrogacy was different from adoption because the biological mother made a personal choice about who the parents of her child would be.

“This is an individual choice that the government does not seek to influence,” he said.

“The legislation requires everybody involved to fully understand and agree to the situation.

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“In the case of adoption however, it is the role of the state to place a child with parents.”

Mr Reeves said the majority of adoptions in Queensland resulted from inter-country arrangements with overseas countries, none of whom accepted applications from same-sex couples.

We don’t mind same-sex couples engaging a surrogate but we don’t want them to adopt.

But Action Reform Change Queensland, an advocacy group lobbying for equal rights, last night rejected the government’s argument.

“It’s not a defence of a discriminatory law in Australia to say there are discriminatory laws in other countries,” spokesman Rod Goodbun said.

“To claim that you should continue to maintain a barrier in Queensland on the basis nothing will ever happen in the international jurisdiction in terms of reforms is just unacceptable.”

Mr Goodbun said heterosexual couples who cannot conceive had the option of applying to adopt a child and same-sex couples should be treated no differently.

“They will share many of the same expectations in terms of forming loving relationships and starting families,” he said.

“There are many children in the world that would greatly benefit from a loving home environment that would be provided equally by a heterosexual or same-sex couple.”

Mr Goodbun said the fact NSW was moving towards allowing same-sex couples to adopt children showed Queensland was “beginning to slip behind”.

Liberal National Party frontbencher David Gibson, who backs the existing adoption laws, said while same-sex couples could provide a “great deal of love” he believed the ideal environment to raise kids involved a mother and a father.

However, Mr Gibson attacked the Bligh government for adopting different positions on surrogacy and adoption.

“We have a government here that is clearly inconsistent,” he said.

“I was listening to the [surrogacy] debate in the parliament and I was hearing them argue strongly about the rights of same-sex couples and how they should be able to start a family, and yet their blatant hypocrisy when it comes to the adoption bill.

“We don’t mind same-sex couples engaging a surrogate but we don’t want them to adopt.”

The NSW adoption changes were passed 45 to 43 in the Legislative Assembly on Thursday, but will need to win upper house approval before becoming law.

The NSW bill grants gay and lesbian couples the same rights under adoption law as heterosexual couples and homosexual individuals, but an amendment means birth parents will have an avenue to specify whether they want their children to be adopted by a same-sex couple.

Under the changes, church adoption agencies may refuse to provide services to gay and lesbian couples without breaching anti-discrimination laws.

NSW Premier Kristina Keneally and Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell both backed the bill, saying the best interests of the children would be the main criteria in placing children with prospective parents.

But other MPs argued against easing the adoption restrictions, citing religious grounds or arguing not enough research had been done on the impact of raising children by same-sex parents.

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