Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tharnicaa and Kopika Murugappan will obviously go down in Australian history. They are an extension of an issue that has been with us for a while, and that is the identification of where your state is, where you are a resident of. And it goes through two processes: jus soli, which is 'of the soil', and jus sanguinis, which is 'of the blood'. We in Australia work with the 'of the blood' proposition, but this causes problems. And it's probably why the Dred Scott legislation in the United Stated, which was brought in in 1857, was repealed by the 14th amendment in 1867. The reason was that they believed Dred Scott was basically not a person and, therefore, could be moved around the United States. We have to make sure that these two girls are not just seen as chattels that can be moved around. They have rights that are present by reason of, I believe, jus soli—that is, they were born in Australia, they were born here; there is no other nation on earth that they were born in. A belief in the extension of the rights of the individual has been a consistent theme of mine since I've been in this place. I believe the rights of a person, both before and after they are born, are indissoluble and inviolate, and I will continue to fight to make sure these people are treated justly.