Altruistic surrogacy – when a woman has another couple’s child without payment – is currently being debated MPs in Queensland. The practice is currently illegal in the sunshine state, punishable by a $10,000 fine or three years’ imprisonment. ..

An Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) report, commissioned by the government, established that while the principle of shared parental responsibility was widely supported, it was often misconstrued as requiring 50-50 share time. ..

The review and its recommendations are at least as controversial as the four-year-old law, finding that shared parenting laws had been misinterpreted, and were never meant to give a 50-50 custody split to each parent…