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

I move government amendment (1) on sheet GN118:

(1) Schedule 1, item 45, page 9 (lines 13 to 15), omit the item, substitute:

45 Section 258F

  Repeal the section, substitute:

258F Person must not be required to provide personal identifiers in a cruel, inhuman or degrading way etc.

     For the purposes of this Act, a requirement to provide a personal identifier, or the provision of a personal identifier, in a particular way under section 257A is not of itself taken:

  (a) to be cruel, inhuman or degrading; or

  (b) to be a failure to treat a person with humanity and with respect for human dignity.

However, nothing in this Act authorises the Minister or an officer to require a person to provide a personal identifier under section 257A in a cruel, inhuman or degrading way, or in a way that fails to treat the person with humanity and with respect for human dignity.

The Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee reported on the bill on 5 June 2015, and I thank the committee for their consideration of the bill and their report. The committee recommended that consideration be given to ensuring that the protections in line with those found in sections 258E and 258F of the Migration Act apply to any means of collecting personal identifiers under the proposed broad power contained in the bill. In response to that recommendation I move an amendment to schedule 1 item 45 of the bill. That amendment will omit the current section 258F and substitute for it the proposed wording extending the protections found in that section to any means of collecting personal identifiers under the proposed broad power. The amendment will affirm an individual's right to physical integrity and freedom from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and ensure that personal identifiers are collected with respect for human dignity. Through the bill the government seeks to strengthen the Department of Immigration and Border Protection's powers to collect personal identifiers for the purposes of the Migration Act and migration regulations. These measures in the bill affirm the government's commitment to border protection, and I commend the amendment to the Senate.

Question agreed to.

Bill, as amended, agreed to.

Bill reported with an amendment; report adopted.