2016] The Prevention and Reduction of Statelessness in Australia 473 no-one born in Australia remain stateless.’92 This is also acknowledged in the Department’s Procedures Advice Manual 3 (‘PAM3’) with respect to the ‘Assessing claims of statelessness guidelines’.93 However, the discretionary nature of the Minister’s decision with regard to an applicant’s ‘identity’ under s 24(3), combined with the lack of guidance provided in the Citizenship Act or other relevant legislation or regulations as to the exercise of that discretion, has the potential to limit the protection provided to stateless children born in Australia. The reference to ‘identity’ is not anchored in the 1961 Convention: there is no reference to such a requirement in the treaty and hence no comparative insights into its application in practice. As Kim Rubenstein has observed, the incorporation of the ‘identity’ test means that questions of identity may become central to the application of s 21(8) ‘rather than an assessment as to whether the applicant is stateless.’94 As we have noted elsewhere, one of the key challenges for stateless persons is ‘proving’ their identity.95 On account of not being recognised as a national by any state, stateless persons often do not have documentation as to their citizenship status. This may prevent them from obtaining other forms of identity documentation.96 Given that applicants for conferral of citizenship under s 21(8) of the Citizenship Act are likely to be babies or young children, they will only be able to ‘prove’ their identity through their parents. Since their situation is likely to result from their parents’ inability to transfer nationality (on account of their own statelessness), there is an inherent obstacle.97 92 Revised Explanatory Memorandum, Australian Citizenship Bill 2005 (Cth) 38. 93 Department of Immigration and Border Protection (Cth), Procedures Advice Manual 3: Refugee and Humanitarian ---- Protection Visas ---- All Applications ---- Common Processing Guidelines (16 February 2016) 125 [77]. 94 Kim Rubenstein, ‘A Common Understanding of Statelessness’ (Paper presented at the Workshop on Researching Statelessness and Citizenship in Asia and the Pacific, Melbourne Law School, January 2016). 95 Foster, McAdam and Wadley, above n 6. The Australian Government has recognised that this is the case: Onshore Protection Consultative Group, ‘Statelessness: Extract of Issues Paper’ (4 November 2010), cited in Jane McAdam, ‘Position Paper on a Statelessness Determination Procedure for Australia’ (Position Paper, Refugee Council of Australia, 29 September 2011) 1 [1] <https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/r/s&l/120600-SSD.pdf.pdf>. 96 European Network on Statelessness, ‘Still Stateless, Still Suffering: Why Europe Must Act Now to Protect Stateless Persons’ (Report, 2014) <http://www.statelessness.eu/sites/www.statelessness.eu/files/ENS_Still_Stateless_Still_Suffer ing_online%20version_2.pdf>. See also UNHCR, Handbook on Protection of Stateless Persons, above n 10. 97 UNHCR, Self-Study Module on Statelessness (2012) 19.