Someone needs take that baby girl away from that couple now.
They might not be able to. I've been read some Australian commentators. The father may have chosen his home state carefully, becuase (if I've understood this correctly) they have more lax policies on many issues when compared to other states. So in WA there is no automatic removal of a child when it is discovered he is a convicted child sex offender. Removal occurs only if he is considered still a threat to the child today.
I'm not sure exactly how that works in practice , but if he hasn't been caught recently, and the child in his care isn't in his preferred age range to abuse, they may leave her where she is.
One thing I am not clear on is if the above is relevant for ALL children born to convicted child sex offender, or just the ones using international surrogacy.
The only thing I can think of is given the worldwide media spotlight the authorties might take a more cautious line with him than they normally would, if the state laws leaves them room to do that.
If they do remove her she is their responsibility and is at least half Australian making her an Australian citizen according to the (laxer than other states) state laws. So she'll probably enter the long term foster care system. Becuase as Maryz points out, the Australian adoption system looks to be a lot closer to Ireland and Italy than it is the UK. They can't just ship her off to Thailand to her surrogate mother.
Both those children have their futures up in the air. If the Thai authorities have any serious doubts
- about the surrogate family's ability to care well for the boy in the long term, which could mean more bad PR.
-have become aware of any (negstive media attention attracting) skeletons in their closet (bear in mind we know nothing about the legal father, he may have been kept off camera for a reason rather than logistics)
-aren't convinced the legal mother will maintain an off camera/no more interviews status
.... then they could remove the boy from her care. And they have sanctions up their sleeve as an ace in terms of persuading her to relinquish him. She has other children she can't care for if she's in the slammer.
In short. This is an unholy mess. And it may not have a happy ending for one, or both of the children at the sharp end.
And it's not just these two children. There are other babies in utero in Thailand with Australian intended parents. They are in legal limbo right now. Theoretically at least they could end up in Thai orphanages. Some of them may be untracable as agencies disappear off the face of the earth shredding records as they go, and surrogates go to ground to avoid arrest and charges of conspiracy to human traffic.
Hard to say at the moment if the Thai gov. will sort out an amnesty period for already concieved children, or not. But I do believe that is potentially part of why they wanted Gammy's mum off camera and interviews. They will need a ittle shade from the media sun to work that bit out off camera rather than having to isntantly react to every new wave of revelations, updates and "he said" "she said".