The Greens senator, Nick McKim, queried why the government had not already released other stateless people from detention since they also have no real prospect of removal to another country.
Labor’s Murray Watt said to his knowledge so far only the plaintiff, NZYQ, had been released and “none of the other people to whom it may relate have been released”.
Watt argued that the government “cannot act on that decision” until the reasons of the court are received and before it gets legal advice as to “how that decision relates to the other people involved”.