Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Sometimes I think this place is full of toolies at schoolies.

Honourable senators interjecting—

The CHAIRMAN: Senator Hanson-Young, there is no need for any commentary. Please resume your seat again. The Senate should come to order. Senator Hanson-Young, you have the call.

This will be the final amendment that I will move tonight. I have other amendments on the sheet, but in the spirit of getting everybody out of here, I will leave them—

Honourable senators interjecting—

The CHAIRMAN: Order!

Well, I am happy to stay, but I think everyone wants to go home.

The CHAIRMAN: Please resume your seat, Senator Hanson-Young. If senators could assist the Chair and remain silent. Senator Hanson-Young, you have the call.

This amendment is in relation to schedule 6. It is the schedule that effectively renders babies born in Australia stateless. It says that those babies who are born here in Australia to asylum seeker parents, whether they are born in a hospital in Perth, in Adelaide or in Brisbane, will be classified as unauthorised maritime arrivals. This schedule is designed to keep those babies in limbo, along with their families. And, of course, one of the most awful parts of this schedule is that it is retrospective. We know that over 100 babies have been born here in Australia. They were delivered like any other baby. They arrived in the way that any other children in this country have. They are not maritime arrivals, and yet this schedule renders them to be unauthorised maritime arrivals.

Furthermore, of those who have already been born, 24 of them, tomorrow when this bill passes, will be on a plane to Nauru. The minister has said that the moment this bill passes those 24 babies, who were born here in Australia, will be on a plane to Nauru. It is putting children back in detention. I see that the minister is here in the chamber tonight, and he is grinning. I find that appalling. Twenty-four babies born in Australia are going to be sent to Nauru under this schedule. It needs to be deleted.