Surrogate births will likely remain a rare event in Queensland despite it being decriminalised after a heated debate in state parliament, the state's attorney-general says.
The laws passed 48 votes to 40 late on Thursday after more than 17 hours of debate in which opposition MPs were branded knuckle draggers and bigots for seeking to have same-sex couples excluded.
Under the reforms, which extend to same-sex couples, legal parentage of a child born in altruistic surrogacy agreements - whereby another woman has a baby for no payment - will transfer from the birth mother to the parent or parents who commissioned the birth.
Attorney-General Cameron Dick said it would take time for the state to begin seeing its first legal case of surrogacy, with parents having to pass a number of criteria, including seeking legal advice and counselling.
Mr Dick on Friday told ABC Radio it would take about three months for the Register of Births, Deaths and Marriages to have the process ready.
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"But Queenslanders can be confident now that it is no longer a crime to have a child through an altruistic surrogacy arrangement," he said.
Commercial surrogacy remains illegal in Queensland. However, surrogate mothers will be entitled to recover "reasonable birth costs" from the intending parent, and is also entitled not to relinquish the baby, Mr Dick said.
He did not anticipate a flood of surrogate births in Queensland, as in the ACT where surrogacy had been legal since 2004 and there had been only five court applications for transfer of parentage.
"There's probably people who are really very keen to get going and, to begin, with there will be a peak ... but then I think it will be a very, sort of, stable number after that," Mr Dick said.
Family and Christian groups were quick to slam the laws.
Family First Senate candidate for Queensland Wendy Francis predicted the "evil" laws would result in another "Sorry Day" being
needed for children born to surrogates.
"(Premier) Anna Bligh has destroyed the lives of a future stolen generation and has mocked those who are appalled and distressed at the passing of these laws which can only be described as evil," Ms Francis said in a statement on Friday.
Australian Christian Lobby managing director Jim Wallace said the laws allowed people to "order" babies, and promised Labor would pay at the polls.
"We will be looking at ways to ensure that Christian disappointment and disgust at what has been done can be fully expressed during the next election period," Mr Wallace said on Friday.
