Today’s passing of Queensland legislation which, among other things, will enable two men, two women or a single person to “order” a baby via surrogacy, is a blight on the State and will have ramifications on sections of all future generations of Queenslanders, the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) said today.

ACL Managing Director Jim Wallace said the Queensland Government had displayed a distinct lack of moral courage in bowing to the political agenda of the gay and lesbian rights lobby to obtain children and had blatantly disregarded the most basic rights of children to at least begin life with both a mother and a father.

“Each MP who voted for the Qld surrogacy bill has failed to meet their most sacred duty to uphold the best interests of the child,” Mr Wallace said.

“We will be looking at ways to ensure that Christian disappointment and disgust at what has been done can be fully expressed during the next election period.”

Mr Wallace said he had found the way in which the Bligh Government had coupled the issue of surrogacy for infertile heterosexual couples with moves to permit same-sex and single parenting particularly deceitful.

“The idea of a conscience vote was a sham from start to finish. By refusing to split the Government bill, Ms Bligh ensured that ALP members had no real opportunity to reject surrogacy for homosexuals and singles and that she could always hide the really objectionable element of the issue in statements about heterosexual surrogacy, with which the majority of the public had no problem,” he said.

“Christians will be greatly encouraged by the LNP’s commitment to reverse this legislation when in power and given the force of concern for this betrayal of children’s rights, this will be a strong point of differentiation for the constituency,” said Mr Wallace.

“It seems that the rights of Queensland children – and the truth of their basic identity – have become a casualty of the Bligh Government’s social engineering agenda, and this is something no Christian lobby or constituency is about to ignore.”

Media Contact: Glynis Quinlan on 0408 875 979.

Australian Christian Lobby
Canberra, Australia

Tel: (02) 6259 0431

Fax: (02) 6259 0462

Mob: 0448 602 878

www.acl.org.au