Children’s Protection (Lawful Surrender of Newborn Child) Amendment Bill

I rise on behalf of the Liberal Party to indicate our position on this bill. We are prepared to support the second reading of the bill. The Victorian government is currently leading research on behalf of the Community and Disability Services Ministerial Council to identify options currently available to respond to the issue of abandoned and relinquished babies. I understand that this research will assess the options of the value of the baby safe havens proposed by this bill. The Liberal Party is prepared to wait and look at the outcome of that particular research. At this point, we are prepared to support the second reading, but we would like to see what the outcome of that research is before we commit to supporting the third reading.