Page 991 - Week 03 - Thursday, 3 April 2008
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Women) (5.06), in reply: I do not think it will come as any surprise to members that I will be supporting the Human Cloning and Embryo Research Amendment Bill 2007. It does represent the ACT component of a nationally consistent scheme to prohibit human cloning and regulate research involving excess human embryos.
This is a rapidly developing area of technology, and it is important that the ACT keep pace with the potential therapeutic applications of research, as well as changes in community attitudes and standards. The introduction of this scheme was originally agreed to at the COAG meeting of 5 April 2002. This amending legislation is required by the intergovernmental Research Involving Human Embryos and Prohibition of Human Cloning Agreement 2004, to which the territory is a party.
At the COAG meeting of 13 April 2007, the commonwealth, states and the ACT signed a notice of variation to the 2004 agreement to renew their commitment to nationally consistent arrangements for the prohibition of human cloning for reproduction and the regulation of human embryo research. The commonwealth Prohibition of Cloning Act 2002 and the Research Involving Human Embryos Act 2002, which provided the framework for the national scheme, were assented to on 19 December 2002. The ACT government and other states and territories were involved in the extensive consultation process undertaken in the development of the commonwealth legislation.
Amendments to the commonwealth legislation were made by the Prohibition of Human Cloning for Reproduction and Regulation of Human Embryo Research Amendment Act 2006, which received royal assent on 12 December 2006. The amendments implemented recommendations of the legislative review of the Prohibition of Human Cloning Act 2002 and the Research Involving Human Embryos Act 2002, also known as the Lockhart review, produced in December 2005 by the legislative review committee chaired by the late Hon John Lockhart, a former justice of the Federal Court.
The Lockhart review was instigated in accordance with the requirement of the commonwealth acts of 2002 that those acts be independently reviewed two years from the date of their assent—the end of 2005. The Lockhart committee had representatives with expertise in law, ethics, medical practice, science and community representation, and all appointments were made after consultation with states and territories. The committee consulted widely across Australia. ACT officials participated in a COAG working group which advised COAG on the Lockhart review recommendations.
The commonwealth legislation has limited coverage due to constitutional issues. The commonwealth acts do not cover state agencies, individuals or universities. The nationally consistent scheme addresses these gaps, provides uniform regulation and avoids uncertainty about the application of the regulatory scheme. The states and the ACT have undertaken to use their best endeavours to introduce corresponding legislations into their legislatures by 12 June 2008 and for all parties to maintain nationally consistent arrangements over time. The Victorian, Queensland, New South Wales and Tasmanian parliaments have already passed nationally consistent legislation. Relevant legislation has been introduced into the Western Australian and South Australian parliaments. The Northern Territory parliament is yet to introduce nationally consistent legislation and was not a party to the 2004 agreement.
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