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We are specialist family and fertility lawyers.
The fight over surrogacy laws in Australia just escalated.
While the New South Wales Fertility Inquiry was set up to tackle practical issues like IVF costs and donor limits, it has instead become a platform for international opponents trying to ban surrogacy entirely.
The inquiry recently heard from Reem Alsalem, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, who argued that all forms of surrogacy should be completely eradicated. She claimed that separating a child from a surrogate causes immense, lasting trauma. Yet, when asked to provide a single piece of scientific research to back up her claims, she confessed she had none.
It is incredibly dangerous when global figures attempt to rewrite Australian laws based on personal ideology rather than hard evidence. We need to protect our families and ensure our laws are built on facts, not groundless assertions.
What are your thoughts on international bodies trying to influence Australian reproductive laws? Share your perspective in the comments below. Comments are open!
If you are navigating your own family-building journey and need expert legal protection, contact the team at Page Provan today: https://pageprovan.com.au/
16/07/2026
International adoptions have hit a historic low — and it explains a lot about the rise of surrogacy.
For the childless, there are really two paths to parenthood: adoption or surrogacy. Surrogacy's rise tracks closely with adoption's decline.
In 2021–22, Australia recorded just 208 adoptions total — down from 10,000 in 1970, when the population was a third of today's size. Of those 208, only 31 were "stranger" domestic adoptions (children adopted by parents who didn't already know them); the rest were relatives, foster carers, or step-parents formalising existing relationships. Just 16 children were adopted from overseas, all from Asia — Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, the Philippines — none of which permit same-sex adoption.
The US shows the same trend. International adoptions have fallen from 23,000 a year two decades ago to 973 in 2025 — just 4.2% of all US adoptions. Scaled to Australia's population, the US rate would produce roughly 1,845 adoptions here annually. We're nowhere close.
So when critics argue intended parents should "just adopt," the numbers say otherwise — there simply aren't enough children available. That's arithmetic, not opinion.
It's worth remembering the words of Sir David Attenborough in The Trials of Life (1990):
"If you watch animals objectively for any length of time, you're driven to the conclusion that their main aim in life is to pass on their genes to the next generation. Most do so directly, by breeding. In the few examples that don't do so by design, they do it indirectly, by helping a relative with whom they share a great number of their genes. And in as much as the legacy that human beings pass on to the next generation is not only genetic but to a unique degree cultural, we do the same. So animals and ourselves, to continue the line, will endure all kinds of hardship, overcome all kinds of difficulties, and eventually the next generation appears."
For far too long, Western Australia’s surrogacy laws discriminated against same-sex male couples and single men. But thanks to the bravery of one couple, that has finally changed.
In a recent landmark decision, Mr. and Mr. Dunn successfully challenged the discriminatory provisions of the Surrogacy Act 2008. They had previously been told that while they were approved for surrogacy in every other respect, they were barred simply because of who they were. Unwilling to wait for delayed legislative changes, they took their fight to court and won.
With the brilliant help of barrister Rachel Oakley and an intrepid legal team, the court ruled in the Dunns' favour. The time for seeking special leave to appeal to the High Court has now expired, cementing this historic victory and allowing the couple to proceed with their surrogacy journey. While we celebrate this outcome, it is a stark reminder of the immense financial and emotional toll that test cases take on the families who fight them for the benefit of everyone else.
What are your thoughts on this monumental shift in Western Australian law? Share your thoughts below. Comments are open!
If you need expert advice on surrogacy or family law, reach out to our dedicated team today: https://pageprovan.com.au/
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