Same-sex parent law passes final hurdle

This media release was issued by the TGLRG on 17.11.09.

A Tasmanian Government law giving legal parental status to the same-sex partner of a woman who has a child through fertility treatment has passed its final hurdle and will now become law.

Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group spokesperson, Rodney Croome, said the move will bring legal peace-of-mind to many Tasmanian families.

Womens' Legal Service Managing Solicitor, Susan Fahey, said her service will now begin the process of educating same-sex couples, their families and the broader community about the impact of reform.

This afternoon the Tasmanian Lower House accepted Upper House amendments making the legal recognition of co-mothers retrospectively effective from the passage of the Relationships Act in 2003 when same-sex relationships were recognised in other Tasmanian laws.

The retrospectivity amendment was proposed by Windermere (Launceston) Upper House member, Ivan Dean, to compensate for the failure of the Upper House to support co-mother recognition when it was first proposed by the State Government as part of the Relationships Act six years ago.

Tasmanian Attorney-General, Lara Giddings, who this morning announced the commencement of officially-recognised relationship ceremonies in Tasmania, said the Government was "pleased and surprised" that the traditionally-conservative Upper House had made good its previous failure to recognise co-mothers by not only supporting the new law but making it retrospective.

For more information contact Rodney Croome on 0409 010 668 or Susan Fahey on 0418 434 226.