Page Provan Calls for Repeal of Surrogacy Parentage Regulation Changes
On 9 October 2026, our director Stephen Page wrote to the Attorney-General, the Hon Michelle Rowland MP, calling for the repeal of Part 3 of the Family Law Amendment (2026 Measures No. 1) Regulations 2026. If left in place, these regulations will remove the statutory presumptions that currently help establish the legal parentage of children born overseas through surrogacy, effective 9 December 2026.
What’s changing, and why it matters
The regulations repeal subsection 10(3) of the Family Law Regulations 2024, which currently gives families certainty, via statutory presumption, that their functional parents are recognised as their legal parents — without needing to go to court to prove it. Removing that certainty doesn’t just affect future surrogacy arrangements. It reaches back into the lives of children already born, touching matters as significant as inheritance, superannuation entitlements, Medicare registration, and a child’s right under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child to be cared for by their parents.
A decision made without consultation
Stephen’s letter raises a core concern: the regulations were made on 3 September 2026, immediately before the ALRC’s surrogacy review report was due, and without consultation with the organisations and professionals who work in this space day to day — including Equality Australia, Rainbow Families Australia, Surrogacy Australia, the Fertility Society of Australia and New Zealand, or the Family Law Section of the Law Council of Australia.
How many families are affected
Drawing on Department of Home Affairs figures, Stephen estimates that around 3,000 of the approximately 4,000 Australian children born overseas through surrogacy between 2009 and 2026 fall within the countries covered by the current presumptions. These presumptions don’t expire once a child turns 18 — they’re relevant throughout a person’s life, and can remain relevant in estate matters beyond it.
What Stephen is asking for
The letter asks that Part 3 be repealed, and that matters be put back to where they stood on 2 September 2026, until a clear, consulted and considered pathway forward is developed in response to the ALRC’s surrogacy report — one that involves the Commonwealth, the States and Territories, and the families affected.
Stephen writes from a position shaped by decades of hands-on experience in this area: he has advised on more than 2,170 surrogacy journeys since 1988, and was a member of the ALRC’s own surrogacy inquiry advisory committee.
Read Stephen’s full letter to the Attorney-General for the detailed legal reasoning, case examples and the complete picture of who stands to be affected.
