Australia

In all states in Australia (except Tasmania which bans all surrogacy under the Surrogacy Contracts Act 1993), altruistic surrogacy has only recently become legal. However, in all states and the Australian Capital Territory arranging commercial surrogacy is a criminal offence, although the Northern Territory has no legislation governing surrogacy at all and there are no plans to introduce laws on surrogacy into the NT Legislative Assembly anytime soon.

In 2006 Australian senator Stephen Conroy and his wife Paula Benson announced that they had arranged for a child to be born through egg donation and gestational surrogacy. Unusually, Conroy was put on the birth certificate as the father of the child. Previously, couples who make surrogacy arrangements in Australia had to adopt the child rather than being recognised as birth parents, however most states have changed such arrangements to give the intended parents proper rights. After the announcement, Victoria changed their legislation since 1 January 2010, under the Assisted Reproductive Treatment Act 2008 to make altruistic surrogacy within the state legal, however commercial surrogacy is illegal.

Since 1 June 2010 in Queensland, altruistic surrogacy is legal under the Surrogacy Act 2010 No 2. Commercial surrogacy is illegal under the legislation.

Similarly, altruistic surrogacy in both New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory is legal under the Surrogacy Act 2010 No 102 and the Parentage Act 2004, respectably.

In Western Australia (under the Surrogacy Act 2008) and South Australia (under the Family Relationships Act 1975) altruistic surrogacy is only legal for couples consisting of the opposite sex (single people and same sex couples are banned from altruistic surrogacy). Sometime in 2011 Tasmania will introduce the Surrogacy Bill to the parliament, after a community consultation process.

What is the "special provision" mentioned by several articles referring to the landmark decision rendered by the Youth Court of South Australia (14 April 2011) according to which any woman who used an interstate surrogate before November 2010 will be recognised as the mother of the child provided they seek court action
before January 2012???

I need a answer asap, concerning the exact provision which stipulates this condition.

Thank you very much in advance