Queensland passes first fertility treatment legislation

The Queensland parliament has passed the state's first assisted conception laws, which include plans to create a retrospective donor-registry by 2026.

The number of families that can be created by the same donor will be capped at ten as part of the new legislation, bringing Queensland in line with other Australian states. The state's public health system Queensland Health has been given the power to inspect clinics, issue improvement notices, and suspend or cancel clinic licences for non-compliance. Clinics must also provide counselling for people seeking treatment using donor gametes and donor-conceived people seeking information about their donors must be signposted to counselling services by the registrar, under this new legislation.

Shannon Fentiman, Queensland minister for health and women, said: 'It's crucial that donor-conceived people have the opportunity to understand their genetic heritage – that's why the information register will be so important for so many Queenslanders.’

Donor-conceived people will have the opportunity to access information about their donor from the age of 16 from the donor-registry, including if they were conceived before 2004, when donors ceased to be anonymous in the state. Identifying or non-identifying information about the donor will be available from the register, alongside non-identifying information about the existence of donor siblings and the donor's children. Contact details for their donor, donor siblings and the donor's children can be provided with their consent, and siblings can also consent to allow identifying information to be made available via the registrar.

Stephen Page, a fertility lawyer and director of the Fertility Society of Australia and New Zealand, told the Guardian 'The Fertility Society of Australia and New Zealand has called for a national donor registry. Now we're going to have, when this bill gets enacted, eight systems of regulation of IVF in a country of 27 million, which is crazy...'

Victoria previously enacted a retrospective donor registry, operated by the Victorian Assisted Reproductive Treatment Authority. The registry manages details of over 35,000 donors, recipients, and donor-conceived people. However, the Victorian government passed a bill requiring this registry to be taken over by the health department next year, after an IT review determined its data was at 'extreme' risk of being compromised.

Some donor-conceived people have criticised the change as the government has repealed the donor-linking service and removed the requirement for mandatory counselling requirement to offer counselling to families who want to reach out to donors, ABC News reported.

Rebecca Kerner, a chairperson for the Australian and New Zealand Infertility Counsellors Association told ABC News: 'making sure that we have a system where this information is entirely secure is critical. For many young people, it's a massive piece of their identity.'