Australian Family and Fertility Law

Send us Fan Mail

Surrogacy in South Africa comes with one big catch for Australians — you can only access it if you're domiciled there.

Stephen Page, multi-award winning surrogacy lawyer and accredited family law specialist at Page Provan explains.

In this video:

• Why South Africa requires intended parents to be domiciled there — not just visiting — before they can access surrogacy, which mainly suits the South African diaspora in Australia
• How South Africa's preconception court order process works, and how it differs from Australia's post-birth parentage order
• Why South African-born children have been recognised as the child of their Australian parents under the Family Law Act since 2013, and how regulations commencing April 2025 affect birth certificate recognition
• Why the Department of Home Affairs may still request a DNA test for Australian citizenship by descent, even where parentage is presumed
• Why South Africa doesn't discriminate by relationship status or sexuality, but does require a genetic link with the child

📞 Need advice? Contact Page Provan Family & Fertility Lawyers.
 🌐 https://pageprovan.com.au

Made by Law Firm Marketing Experts, Practice Proof

Send us Fan Mail

Egg donation in South Africa — a high-quality, lower-cost IVF option for Australians, but one that carries real legal risk under Australian laws banning commercial egg donation.

Stephen Page, fertility lawyer and accredited family law specialist at Page Provan explains.

In this video:

• Why Australians choose South Africa for egg donation — IVF quality, lower cost, and historic donor shortages back home
• How South Africa's anonymous donor model compares with Australia's open-identity laws, and why it affects bringing embryos home
• Why some South African donor agencies now require consent to future identity disclosure if the law changes
• The legal risk in Australia: commercial egg donation is a criminal offence in most states and territories (all except Victoria and Tasmania), with penalties of up to 15 years' imprisonment
• Why getting legal advice before arranging overseas egg donation is essential

📞 Need advice? Contact Page Provan Family & Fertility Lawyers.
 🌐 https://pageprovan.com.au

Made by Law Firm Marketing Experts, Practice Proof

Send us Fan Mail

Breaching parenting orders is more common than you'd think — but taking your ex back to court isn't always the best response.

Bruce Provan, Managing Director and accredited family law specialist at Page Provan explains.

In this video:

• What a contravention application involves, and why it needs to carefully set out the exact times, dates and places the order was breached
• The penalties a court can impose for a proven breach — from fines and bonds to, in extreme cases, imprisonment — and why the court still has discretion not to penalise at all
• Why an application to vary the parenting orders can sometimes be a better option than pursuing a contravention, since orders that aren't working may need to change rather than be enforced
• Why some parents who apply for contravention end up with less time with their children than before
• How parenting coordination offers a lower-cost way to fix what's not working, without going to court

📞 Need advice? Contact Page Provan Family & Fertility Lawyers.
 🌐 https://pageprovan.com.au

Made by Law Firm Marketing Experts, Practice Proof

Send us Fan Mail

Surrogacy in Sri Lanka is available to Australians, but only under two conditions: you must be of Sri Lankan origin, and part of a heterosexual married couple. In this episode of the Australian Family and Fertility Law Podcast, Multi-Award Winning Surrogacy & Fertility Lawyer Stephen Page explores this often-overlooked surrogacy destination, and the legal traps Australians need to avoid along the way.

Stephen explains why Sri Lanka has become attractive for eligible Australian couples — low-cost IVF and legal advice, and relatively fast matching with surrogates — largely a consequence of the country's economic crisis. He then unpacks how parentage recognition has shifted from an adoption-based model, which carries serious criminal risk for Australians, to a birth-certificate model where intended parents are named directly through the hospital. Stephen also details why, even with a legal presumption of parentage under Australian law, the Department of Home Affairs often still insists on DNA testing before granting citizenship.

In This Episode:

• Who is eligible for surrogacy in Sri Lanka as an Australian
• Why Sri Lanka has become a lower-cost surrogacy destination since its economic crisis
• Why adoption-based parentage recognition creates serious criminal risk for Australians
• How intended parents can be named directly on a Sri Lankan birth certificate instead
• How recent Family Law Act changes create a presumption of parentage for children born in recognised countries like Sri Lanka
• Why the Department of Home Affairs may still require DNA testing despite that presumption
• Why legal advice before starting an overseas surrogacy journey can prevent serious criminal exposure

If you're considering surrogacy in Sri Lanka or any overseas destination, get legal advice before you begin your journey:
 https://pageprovan.com.au/

Made by Law Firm Marketing Experts, Practice Proof

Send us Fan Mail

 Male fertility decline has become one of the biggest questions in reproductive medicine — and a leading US researcher says obesity, heat, chemicals and even mobile phones could all be playing a part.

Stephen Page, fertility lawyer and accredited family law specialist at Page Provan explains.

In this video:

• The leading theories behind declining sperm quality over the last 50 years — obesity, radio waves from phones and wifi, rising heat, and exposure to chemicals and plastics, discussed by Dr Michael Eisenberg at the Fertility Society of Australia and New Zealand conference
• Why nanoplastics found in men's (and dogs') testicles are now being studied as a possible factor
• How Italian law treats embryos as legal persons that can never be discarded, and why the Italian Supreme Court had to step in to end a rule requiring three embryos to be implanted at once
• Why Australia and New Zealand's world-leading single embryo transfer practice reduces risk for mothers and babies
• A look ahead to the next Fertility Society conference, part of the IFFS World Congress in Brisbane next April

📞 Need advice? Contact Page Provan Family & Fertility Lawyers.
 🌐 https://pageprovan.com.au

Made by Law Firm Marketing Experts, Practice Proof

Send us Fan Mail

Rainbow Fertility has spent a decade building a safe, LGBTQ+-inclusive space for fertility care in Brisbane — and its clinical director says the need keeps growing.

Stephen Page, fertility lawyer and accredited family law specialist at Page Provan, talks with Dr Andy Stamatiou , clinical director of Rainbow Fertility (City Fertility), recorded live at the Fertility Society of Australia and New Zealand conference in Canberra.

In this video:

• Why City Fertility launched Rainbow Fertility in 2016 after noticing same-sex couples turning to unsafe practices like home insemination out of fear of feeling excluded at regular IVF clinics
• How demand grew five-fold once a dedicated, welcoming space was created — including from the trans and non-binary community
• Why Rainbow Fertility is building new dedicated rooms at Newstead in Brisbane after losing its original space at Watkins Medical Centre
• Responding to criticism that the initiative was "just tokenism," and why treating every patient with respect shouldn't be controversial
• Why many in the LGBTQ+ community still don't realise which fertility treatments and pathways to parenthood are legally available to them in Australia

📞 Need advice? Contact Page Provan Family & Fertility Lawyers.
 🌐 https://pageprovan.com.au

Made by Law Firm Marketing Experts, Practice Proof

Send us Fan Mail

 Donor egg and sperm import into Australia comes with its own maze of state-by-state rules — Brooke Bramley from World Egg and Sperm Bank explains what that's really like to navigate.

Stephen Page, fertility lawyer and accredited family law specialist at Page Provan, talks with Brooke Bramley from World Egg and Sperm Bank, recorded live at the Fertility Society of Australia and New Zealand conference in Canberra.

In this video:

• How Brooke fell into IVF nearly 20 years ago and found her passion in donor egg and sperm coordination
• The challenge of navigating constantly shifting state-by-state legislation and interpretations, even when the laws themselves haven't changed
• Why Queensland Health's reinterpretation of family limits for lesbian couples — reducing what was treated as a "10 family" to a "5 family" — has been so disruptive, especially when applied retrospectively to reserved embryos and donor gametes
• Why patient education and transparency matter so much for people who've often had a long, emotional journey before turning to donor eggs
• What keeps Brooke passionate about helping patients reach the goal of a healthy baby

📞 Need advice? Contact Page Provan Family & Fertility Lawyers.
 🌐 https://pageprovan.com.au

Made by Law Firm Marketing Experts, Practice Proof

Send us Fan Mail

Egg freezing in prison is now before the High Court of Australia — a landmark human rights case that could reshape prisoners' access to assisted reproductive technology.

Stephen Page, fertility lawyer and accredited family law specialist at Page Provan explains.

In this video:

• Why Rachel Smith, serving a 10-year sentence, sought permission to freeze her eggs before age affects her egg quality
• How the Corrective Services Act's ban on assisted reproductive technology for prisoners led to her case being dismissed by the Supreme Court and the Queensland Court of Appeal
• Why the High Court of Australia has now granted special leave to appeal and ordered the case be expedited
• How international courts — including the European Court of Human Rights (Dickson v United Kingdom) and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (Artavia Murillo v Costa Rica) — have recognised access to IVF and surrogacy as a fundamental human right
• What the outcome could mean for how Australia balances human rights with restrictions on prisoners

📞 Need advice? Contact Page Provan Family & Fertility Lawyers.
 🌐 https://pageprovan.com.au

Made by Law Firm Marketing Experts, Practice Proof

Send us Fan Mail

Donor sperm imports into Australia are getting more complex — and more expensive — as new ART Act rules and state-based family limits reshape supply.

Stephen Page, fertility lawyer and accredited family law specialist at Page Provan, talks with Angelo Allard from Seattle Sperm Bank, recorded live at the Fertility Society of Australia and New Zealand conference in Canberra.

In this video:

• Why Seattle Sperm Bank must comply with both FDA rules in the US and the laws of every country and state it ships to, including Australia's patchwork of state-based legislation
• How new ART Act requirements — like three identifiers on every vial label — add real cost, which ultimately gets passed on to patients
• The impact of state-based "worldwide family limit" rules in NSW, WA and Victoria, and why Queensland's lack of a worldwide limit gives patients there more donor options
• Why Angela believes policymakers making these changes often lack direct experience of donor conception or infertility
• The good news: Seattle Sperm Bank expects a stronger donor supply for WA, NSW and Victoria from November

📞 Need advice? Contact Page Provan Family & Fertility Lawyers.
 🌐 https://pageprovan.com.au

Made by Law Firm Marketing Experts, Practice Proof

Send us Fan Mail

 IVF patient care — why personal connection with patients changes the fertility journey, according to an embryologist on the front line.

Stephen Page, fertility lawyer and accredited family law specialist at Page Provan, talks with an embryologist from City Fertility (Miranda, Sydney), recorded live at the Fertility Society of Australia and New Zealand conference.

In this video:

• Why personal contact with patients matters so much in IVF and egg donation care
• The "in the door, out the door" feeling patients can get at clinics without that connection
• What surrogacy clients have told her about the contrast between older Australian clinics and US clinics — from feeling "like cattle" to being treated as people
• Why she still gets emotional every time, even after 30 years in the job
• A behind-the-scenes look at the embryologist's role in the fertility treatment journey

📞 Need advice? Contact Page Provan Family & Fertility Lawyers.
 🌐 https://pageprovan.com.au

Made by Law Firm Marketing Experts, Practice Proof