| NZYQ v Minister for Immigration | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Court | High Court of Australia |
| Full case name | NZYQ v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs |
| Decided | 28 November 2023 |
| Citation | [2023] HCA 37 |
| Court membership | |
| Judges sitting | Gageler CJ, Gordon, Edelman, Steward, Gleeson, Jagot, Beech-Jones JJ |
| Laws applied | |
This case overturned a previous ruling | |
| Al-Kateb v Godwin | |
NZYQ v Minister for Immigration is a 2023 decision of the High Court of Australia. It was the first judgment of the Gageler court. It is an important case in Australian constitutional law.
The decision is notable for having overturned Al-Kateb v Godwin, in which the Gleeson court held the Migration Act could be applied to authorise the indefinite detention of stateless persons.
The court ruled that when properly interpreted, the Migration Act was beyond the legislative power of the Commonwealth insofar as it applied to the plaintiff. This was because under Australia's constitutional system, penal or punitive detention may only occur where criminal guilt is being punished by the judiciary. The plaintiff's detention was presumed to be punitive, and the Commonwealth failed to argue that there was an alternative, non-punitive reason for his detention.[Note 1]
The Commonwealth attempted to argue that the plaintiff's detention was for purpose of his eventual deportation, a non-punitive purpose. However, because there was no real prospect of deportation to another country, the court did not recognise this as an alternative, valid purpose justifying his detention.
The sections of the Migration Act, whilst invalid insofar as they applied to the plaintiff, remained valid when applied to authorise detention in other circumstances where justified by a non-punitive purpose. Judges explicitly noted post sentence detention is a justified purpose when it is for public protection under federal terrorist legislation or other state legislation. [1]
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- ^ NZYQ v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, [2023 HCA 37], para. 73 (High Court of Australia 28 November 2023) ("For completeness, it should be recorded that there was no issue between the parties that the invalidity of ss 189(1) and 196(1) of the Migration Act in their application to authorise the plaintiff's detention in circumstances found to contravene the applicable constitutional limitation cannot affect the validity of those provisions in their application to authorise detention in other circumstances.").