Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Hansard source

As to this whole case, what I have here is:

On 8 November 2023, the High Court answered questions of law reserved for its consideration in a special case to the effect that ss 189(1) and 196(1) of the Migration Act 1958 … on their proper construction, authorised the plaintiff's detention as at 30 May 2023 and 8 November 2023, but the sections are beyond the legislative power of the Commonwealth Parliament insofar as they applied to the plaintiff as at those dates.

What I would suggest to you is that, based on the fact that this was brought to the courts earlier this year, you would have been aware of it if you were right across it and knew what you were doing. As to this whole case and the determination that was brought down by the court, it states here:

The Court held that ss 189(1) and 196(1), as applied to the plaintiff, contravened Ch III of the Constitution because the plaintiff's detention was not reasonably capable of being seen as necessary for a legitimate and non-punitive purpose in circumstances where there was no real prospect of the removal of the plaintiff from Australia becoming practicable in the reasonably foreseeable future.

This has, in a couple of other cases, been brought before the courts well before this. One was the Chu Kheng Lim case, and there was also a case in 2004 where the courts held that you can't keep people in detention for an unlimited period of time if they can't practicably and reasonably be relocated or sent back in the foreseeable future.

Basically, when this was brought to your attention, you'd been in government for nearly a year. The fact is that you didn't understand that in two previous judgements your case was not represented properly, and that's why the judgements were brought down. You were unprepared. Actually, you've been caught with your pants down. To sit here and listen to you accuse Peter Dutton, the previous Minister for Home Affairs, for what happened with this man is completely misleading the people and this parliament. You were caught with your pants down. You didn't know what was happening. You were forewarned of what to expect with this whole judgement.

What I want to ask you is: from your time of taking over government in May 2022, what process or steps did you take to have this man deported?