TASMANIA: Pollies vote to deny kids a dad

Australian Christian Lobby Newsletter

August 2009

In a blow for the rights of children, the Tasmanian Lower House today passed a bill which would create biological fiction and dismiss the presumption that a child has a father.

The Relationships (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2009 aims to amend the Status of Children Act 1974 so that the partner of a lesbian women who has conceived through IVF is also recognised as the child’s parent – in other words saying that the child has two mothers but no father.

Please click here for details.

ACL Tasmanian Director Nick Overton has urged Tasmania’s Upper House to reject the proposed law changes saying that, in the case of a lesbian couple making use of assisted reproductive technology, the bill would change the State’s parenting presumptions to wrongly deny that a father ever existed.

“Children are not social experiments and the Upper House should carefully consider the ramifications of this bill, which strips from Tasmanian law the logical presumption that a child has one mother and one father,” Mr Overton said.

“While love is important in raising children, there are many other factors which impact on a child’s identity formation not least of which is the nurture of the different but complementary genders.

“The rights of adults, no matter how heartfelt, must never trump the best interests of the child.”

Please click here to read an ACL media release issued today.

Tasmania’s Legislative Council knocked back a similar move in 2003 and ACL believes that its members should not be pressured into passing it now.

ACL today launched a ‘Don’t Dismiss Dad’ campaign against the bill on our Make a Stand website

Tasmanian supporters are urged to voice their opposition to the bill by clicking on to this campaign and firing off an email to their Legislative Council representatives asking them to vote against the bill.