Andrew Murray (WA, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

Through you, Mr Temporary Chairman, to the minister, I am going to ask the minister to take something on board which I think needs to be attended to. I am of the opinion that this bill needs to pass as rapidly as possible and that we need to get on with the anti-money-laundering legislation as fast as possible, for obvious reasons that I enunciated in my speech in the second reading debate and elsewhere. But I want to draw your attention to amendment (3). Through the chair, Minister, I have come across a large number of residents and citizens of Australia who do not know their date and place of birth. I was exposed to that first of all, and most materially, with respect to the Senate Community Affairs References Committee inquiry into child migrants. I have discovered since that there are many circumstances—it probably runs into thousands; it is not a question of hundreds—where such individuals exist.

In the old days, the term used was ‘foundling’—abandoned children. Abandoned children did not know when they had been born or to whom they had been born. Often they knew where, of course, because they were found in a particular locality—unless like Moses they floated down a river, in which case you would not know where they had come from; although I understand that they did find that out in the end. This is a serious issue. I have had adult Australians who were child migrants, who believed themselves to be Australians, weeping in my office at the humiliation of being made to justify who they were and not being able to produce a birth certificate. If they had a birth certificate, it might have been wrong because they were put into an institution and the details about them were made up.

There have been instances of people who came into this country as child migrants being employed by and serving in the Australian armed forces—including in places like Vietnam—and later on, as adults, going overseas, losing their passport, applying for another one, not being able to prove who they were and being refused re-entry into the country in which they grew up. It really is a material issue for a small but sizeable number of Australian residents and citizens.

I would like to request through the chair, if the minister would take my remarks on board, that the department refer to the Senate Community Affairs References Committee’s reports on child migrants, Lost innocents, and Australian children in institutions, Forgotten Australians. With institutionalised children, including foundlings and people who do not know the details of their birth, birthplace and parents, we are talking about over 500,000 Australians last century. That is a sizeable proportion. My feeling is that some kind of protocol, process or mechanism is needed to deal with these circumstances if and when they arise, such as a statutory declaration process or some other means which addresses this problem. By my remarks, please do not infer that I am opposed to your amendment; I am not. I think it is perfectly reasonable for it to be as detailed as it is, but some people just will not be able to comply, and I suspect now and again it is going to prove a problem.

Really, my request through the chair to the minister is to take my remarks on board and think about whether this issue should be addressed in the forthcoming bill, which is to go to a committee, or addressed by some sort of regulatory or administrative process or means, because I suspect it will arise. It arises right now when people want to get married—they cannot say who they are and where they came from—when people apply for a passport, when they apply for bank facilities and so on. It is a problem, and the Senate has recognised it is a problem in its reports. I think, with respect to this sort of measure, the government should be alert to the fact that it might arise as a problem and you need to think about it.