Without a reasonable understanding of the reasons for the High Court’s decision that the affected asylum seekers must no longer be detained, neither the decision nor its implications can fairly be assessed.
Let’s begin at the beginning. The High Court’s decision in the case of NZYQ (November 2023), overturned a prior High Court decision in the case of Al-Kateb, made 20 years earlier in 2004. The Al-Kateb case was the first to contemplate the indefinite detention of people who had fled from their home countries and arrived in Australia by boat.