(1) The affidavit sworn by the lawyer who gave legal advice to a person must
address the matter mentioned in section 22(2) (e) (i) , including by
stating—
(a) separate and independent legal advice was given to the person
before the surrogacy arrangement was made; and
(b) the legal advice included
advice about the following matters—
(i) the unenforceable nature of the
arrangement, other than as provided under section 15;
(ii) the person’s
legal obligations under the arrangement and this Act;
(iii) the legal
implications if the birth mother does not relinquish the child, including
whether child support would be payable by the child’s biological father
under the Child Support (Assessment) Act 1989 (Cwlth) ;
(iv) the legal
implications if, after the birth of the child, the intended parents do not
want to be permanently responsible for the child’s custody and guardianship;
(v) the legal implications if, after the birth of the child, the birth mother,
the birth mother’s spouse (if any), another birth parent (if any) and the
intended parents do not want to be permanently responsible for the child’s
custody and guardianship;
(vi) the legal implications of the making of a
parentage order;
(vii) that this Act promotes openness and honesty about the
child’s birth parentage; and
(c) the lawyer’s belief that the person
appeared to understand the legal advice given.
(2) To remove any doubt, it is
declared that this Act does not affect the law relating to legal professional
privilege.
Example—
The lawyer is not obliged under this Act to disclose
information or a document if the information or document is protected by legal
professional privilege.