The Rev Fred Nile from the Christian Democrats has successfully amended a NSW same-sex reform bill some feared would see the term "father' deleted from birth certificates.

The amended bill was agreed to by the NSW lower house late yesterday.

On Tuesday, Mr Nile's amendments found the support of all members of the MLC bar the four Green Party members.

The Attorney General John Hatzistergos said he accepted Mr Nile's two amendments because "it is not the Government’s intention to modify the way birth certificates are issued in the sense of removing the names of mothers and fathers'.

Mr Nile has thanked his colleagues in the Legislative Council for their support "in ensuring we retained recognition of fathers and paternity under the law'.

"I'm pleased we have managed to look beyond our own political differences and agenda and come together in recognising the important role fathers play in the lives of children," he said.

Mr Hatzistergos argued that the reforms were primarily aimed at ensuring the children of same-sex couples had the same rights that every other child has in a family, such as access to workers compensation, access to victim compensation benefits, and the rights of inheritance.

"At the moment, if the birth mother were to pass away, the same-sex partner who has been in a relationship with the birth mother and who has been raising that child would have no legal nexus to that child. This legislation simply reflects reality, and that reality is based on decisions that have already been made by this Parliament," he said.

Earlier, Christian groups, including the Sydney Diocese's top ethical body, had raised serious concerns about the reform.

In its briefing document released earlier this week, the Social Issues Executive of Sydney Diocese says it was concerned that the change to identify "social parents rather than genetic parents' would deny children "the possibility of knowing about their genetic origins'.

"We believe the Government should rethink the proposal to use birth certificates to this end. It will need to explore other tools for this task, such as "parenting orders'; or, it will need to wrestle with the difficult complexities of adoption law," the briefing says.

Dr David Phillips of Festival of Light Australia had also written to the Premier this week asking him to not to proceed.
"Every day our office is receiving dozens of letters from NSW voters who are deeply disturbed that the Miscellaneous Amendment (Same Sex Relationships) Bill 2008 would legalise a lie " by allowing two female homosexuals to be listed as "parents' on the birth certificate of a child conceived by donor sperm, even though one "parent' has no biological connection with the child," Dr Phillips said.