Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Madigan for the question. The government considers that children of unauthorised maritime arrivals are already included within the existing definition of an 'unauthorised maritime arrival' within the Migration Act. Section 5AA of the Migration Act defines an unauthorised maritime arrival, and section 10 of the act provides that a non-citizen child born in a migration zone is taken to have entered Australia when he or she is born. If the parents of the child do not hold visas at the time of the child's birth, the child will not hold a visa at the time of the its birth because the children of unauthorised maritime arrivals enter the migration zone without a visa. When they are born as unlawful citizens, they are taken to have entered the migration zone by sea and are unauthorised maritime arrivals. I can also confirm that on 15 October 2014 the Federal Circuit Court handed down a judgement in this matter. The court found that a child born to parents who are unauthorised maritime arrivals is also an unauthorised maritime arrival.