Australia's surrogacy laws are about to change. Here's what's actually being argued.

If you are anywhere near the surrogacy community right now, you have probably heard the name ALRC a lot. The Australian Law Reform Commission is in the final stretch of its review of surrogacy laws across the country, with a report due to the Attorney-General on 29 July 2026. Whatever it recommends will shape the landscape for intended parents and surrogates for years to come.

The review has surfaced real disagreements. Not just between politicians and religious groups, but within the surrogacy community itself. Here is an honest look at the arguments on both sides, and a clear-eyed take on where this is likely to land.

The case for change

The argument for reform starts with one number.

75% — the proportion of Australian surrogacy births that happen overseas.

That is not a statistic about preference. It is a measure of how hard the domestic path has become. According to the Department of Home Affairs, 361 children born through overseas surrogacy acquired Australian citizenship by descent in 2023-24 alone, from countries including the United States, Georgia, Colombia and Ukraine. The domestic path, by comparison, produces roughly 130 births a year.

The ALRC's own Discussion Paper puts it plainly: the current system "fails to meet" its core objective of reducing exploitation, because the shortage of domestic surrogates is pushing intended parents offshore into arrangements that are often poorly regulated and sometimes genuinely dangerous. The Sydney Morning Herald's February investigation into a baby broker leaving a surrogate without a contract and a family stranded overseas is not an edge case. It is what the gap looks like in practice.

Surrogacy lawyer Sarah Jefford, who sits on the ALRC's Advisory Committee, has been vocal about why the domestic pool is so thin:

"Everyone else in the industry — lawyers, counsellors, fertility specialists — all make money from surrogacy, while the one person taking most of the risks is considered to be 'exploited,' but only if she is paid."

Sarah Jefford, surrogacy lawyer and ALRC Advisory Committee member

The ALRC's Discussion Paper proposes capped hardship payments to recognise the physical toll of pregnancy and childbirth. Not profit, but recognition. Supporters argue this is the single most practical lever available to grow the domestic pool and keep more families home.

Reform advocates also point to the patchwork of state laws as its own harm. Each state has different eligibility rules, different counselling requirements, different timelines. A national framework, advocates argue, would fix that overnight.

The case against

The opposition is not fringe. It includes the NSW Anti-Slavery Commissioner, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls, and a wide coalition of faith-based and feminist groups.

Their argument begins with what happens when money enters the picture.

97 — the number of women found to have been trafficked into "surrogacy slavery" at a single overseas clinic used by NSW residents, cited at a February 2025 NSW parliamentary hearing.

NSW Anti-Slavery Commissioner James Cockayne told that hearing that the central challenge for surrogates in commercial arrangements is informed consent. "Often there are risks of manipulation, coercion or even fraud that might taint that consent," he said.

Critics argue that loosening the domestic framework, even incrementally with capped payments, risks blurring the line between altruistic and commercial surrogacy in ways that are difficult to walk back. Monica Doumit, writing in the Catholic Weekly as a witness at the NSW inquiry, warned that the ALRC's proposals represent a fundamental shift away from the altruistic model, not merely a refinement of it.

There is also a pointed practical objection: the criminal prohibition on overseas commercial surrogacy, which currently applies in NSW, Queensland and the ACT, has never once been successfully prosecuted. The ALRC proposes replacing it with a civil penalty and registration regime. Critics say this simply formalises the existing non-enforcement, giving legal cover to arrangements the law was always meant to prevent.

What will actually happen

Reading the ALRC's Discussion Paper alongside Sarah Jefford's 18,000-word submission and the evidence from the NSW inquiry hearings, a probable shape for the final report begins to emerge.

Almost certain

A national framework to replace state-by-state laws

Even critics of the ALRC's broader proposals agree the current patchwork is indefensible. As Jefford wrote in her Law Society Journal piece, this one "is uncontroversial." Every state having different eligibility rules, timelines and counselling requirements helps nobody.

Very likely

Capped hardship payments for surrogates

The Discussion Paper's Proposal 26 is specific: payments to recognise discomfort, pain, risk and extraordinary loss from pregnancy and childbirth, with caps set by a National Regulator. This is not full commercial surrogacy. It is a careful step, framed to stay within the altruistic model. Expect it in the final report, possibly with softened language after critics pushed back on the word "hardship."

Likely

Criminal offences for overseas surrogacy scrapped, replaced with civil penalties

The extraterritorial criminal laws in NSW, Queensland and the ACT have never produced a single prosecution. Not one. The ALRC has been transparent about replacing them with a civil penalty and registration system. Jefford's position is blunt: criminalising parents while the industry operates with impunity is both unjust and counterproductive.

The big uncertainty

What happens after the report lands

The ALRC recommends. Government decides. Implementing a national framework requires the states to hand powers to the Commonwealth, which is a significant political ask. Western Australia has already tabled its own ART and Surrogacy Bill without waiting for the ALRC to finish. NSW is running its own parallel inquiry. The real risk is that even a strong ALRC report gets absorbed into a fragmented political process and produces incremental state-by-state tinkering rather than the national overhaul most of the surrogacy community is hoping for.

"I hope the government is listening when the ALRC delivers its report in 2026."

Sarah Jefford, surrogacy lawyer and ALRC Advisory Committee member

So do we.

The ALRC's final report is due 29 July 2026. Read the Discussion Paper at alrc.gov.au. Keep an eye on Stoorky's news section as the deadline approaches.