ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the criminalisation of unauthorised work under the Migration Act. It then turns to Australian jurisprudence denying workers compensation entitlements to unauthorised workers by virtue of the common law doctrine of illegality of contracts. The analysis traces the origins of this doctrine in British precedent. This chapter turns to a more specific constitutive role, which Australian government regulation plays in producing precariousness for unauthorised workers. The criminal offence in s. 235 of the Migration Act 1958 for temporary migrants who work in contravention of visa conditions, and unauthorised migrants like Masri who work in Australia at all. Finally, the chapter points to some of the more protective approaches to unauthorised worker's entitlements in the European Union (EU) and United States of America that acknowledge that positioning unauthorised workers in acutely precarious work does not strengthen the hand of resident workers or strengthen the integrity of the legal system itself.
