Premier Roger Cook promises to bring up surrogacy reforms ‘swiftly’ in third term

Gay couples who have been waiting years for changes to WA’s outdated surrogacy laws have been urged to ‘have faith’, with Premier Roger Cook promising to “swiftly” bring legislation to parliament in a potential third term. The State’s current laws bar gay male couples from accessing surrogacy — only allowing opposite sex couples and women to access the arrangement when the woman cannot conceive due to a medical reason. WA is the only State in the country where such a ban is in place. Mr Cook in 2021 — at the time Health Minister under Mark McGowan — said the Government was “committed to introducing new (surrogacy) legislation to Parliament during this term”. However, with one week of parliament left before the March 8 election, the Premier said Tuesday the bill was still being drafted — promising to bring it to parliament “swiftly” after the election if WA Labor secures a third term. “With all the best will in the world, I’d love to be able to say we could put those surrogacy laws through the parliament in the last week of the of this term,” Mr Cook said. “We won’t be able to put them through. “The drafting in relation to that is at an advanced stage, and we’ll be working with the stakeholders to continue to keep them briefed in relation to how we envisage that legislation working.” Asked what his message was to advocates and would-be parents who had waited years, Mr Cook replied; “have faith”. “I met with these communities on a number of occasions, and the last time I said; ‘look, we may not be able to get this legislation through the parliament during this term, but have faith that we are committed to young people who want to start a family through surrogacy arrangements’,” he said. Mr Cook said in the last week of parliament the lower house would be focused on “procedural matters.” The Premier said the upper chamber would try to get through changes to the Young Offenders Act and local government reforms. The Government’s efforts to reform surrogacy law were stalled in 2019 by a successful filibuster from conservative Liberal MP Nick Goiran, who spoke for nearly 24 hours against the bill, before successfully getting it referred to a parliamentary committee. The legislation would have continued a ban on for-profit surrogacy — meaning the women who carried the baby could not be paid. At the March 2021 election, Labor won unprecedented majorities in both chambers — giving it the power to pass legislation without compromise with other parties. According to a poll this month undertaken by Painted Dog Research, the WA public support legalising surrogacy for gay male couples, with 60 per cent in favour and 40 per cent opposed. The poll was commissioned by lawyer Marty Kavanagh, whose firm — Kavlaw — has long advocated for changes to the State’s surrogacy laws.