Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration and Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Leader in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I will also make some comments. I accept the sentiment with which this amendment has been put and this item opposed, but we support the government on this issue. As the minister said, over the years—and it is certainly my experience of immigration cases—regrettably in some circumstances people often do use their children, and they use them mercilessly, as a backdoor way of exploiting the immigration system. As the minister correctly pointed out, if there is a slight gap in the door they will go right ahead and use it.

Indeed, this issue took up quite a proportion of the hearing of the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee into this bill. I would like to refer to the department’s submission. It states:

In recent years the provision to confer citizenship on children under the age of 18 has been increasingly utilised by clients and their agents in an attempt to circumvent migration requirements or as a last resort when all migration options have been exhausted, including requests for ministerial intervention, and removal from Australia is imminent. This can result in children being conferred citizenship but there being no or little prospect of their family remaining lawfully in Australia or returning to Australia in the foreseeable future because there is no migration option available to those family members.

I appreciate the issues around removal—and certainly Professor Rubenstein and others made comments in relation to this—but it was not the intention of the Australian Citizenship Act, in particular section 21(5), that unauthorised arrivals in Australia who are under 18 years of age at the time of their arrival would have the right to Australian citizenship on their arrival. So the requirements that all applicants be under the age of 18, be permanent residents at the time and be eligible for citizenship to be conferred are supported.

At the hearing, evidence was given by people who work in this area and, of course, are very familiar with the few cases that deal with this particular issue. But there are a very small group of people and when we pressed them we saw how small that group really is. I think the opportunity should not be there any longer for potential exploitation. It is anticipated that, with exceptional circumstances, these people can be appropriately accommodated, as the minister said, under the Migration Act provisions and if necessary, as the department pointed out at the hearing and in its submission, by way of ministerial intervention powers available under the act. Of course, once granted a permanent resident visa under the Migration Act, there would be a pathway there for citizenship.

On that basis we will not be supporting the Greens amendment (3) or opposition of item 5 in relation to eligibility for minors.