A Bill for an Act to Amend the Migration Act 1958, and for Related Purposes
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2013-2014-2015-2016The Parliament of theCommonwealth of AustraliaTHE SENATE Presented and read a first timeMigration Amendment (Free the Children) Bill 2016No. , 2016(Senator Hanson-Young)A Bill for an Act to amend the Migration Act 1958, and for related purposes Contents1 Short title 12 Commencement 13 Objects 24 Schedules 3Schedule 1—Amendments 4Migration Act 1958 4A Bill for an Act to amend the Migration Act 1958, and for related purposesThe Parliament of Australia enacts:1 Short title This Act may be cited as the Migration Amendment (Free the Children) Act 2016.2 Commencement (1) Each provision of this Act specified in column 1 of the table commences, or is taken to have commenced, in accordance with column 2 of the table. Any other statement in column 2 has effect according to its terms.Commencement informationColumn 1Column 2Column 3ProvisionsCommencementDate/Details1. Sections 1 to 3 and anything in this Act not elsewhere covered by this tableThe day this Act receives the Royal Assent.2. Schedule 1The day this Act receives the Royal Assent. Note: This table relates only to the provisions of this Act as originally enacted. It will not be amended to deal with any later amendments of this Act. (2) Any information in column 3 of the table is not part of this Act. Information may be inserted in this column, or information in it may be edited, in any published version of this Act.3 Objects The objects of this Act are: (a) to provide that children detained under the Migration Act 1958 must not be held in immigration detention facilities but instead be placed, along with their immediate family members or guardians, in community residential facilities; and (b) to uphold Australia’s international obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child done at New York on 20 November 1989, particularly as they relate to: (i) the primacy of the consideration of the child’s best interests (Article 3); and
(ii) the principle that children must only be detained as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate time (Article 37).Note: In 2016, the Convention on the Rights of the Child could be viewed in the Australian Treaties Library on the AustLII website (