Budget 2024: $5.6m dedicated to manage NZYQ High Court decision

Labor will spend millions to fend off legal action launched in the wake of the NZYQ decision, and to administer a scheme managing potentially dangerous criminals released into society.

Labor will spend millions to fend off legal action launched in the wake of the NZYQ decision.

Labor will spend millions to fend off legal action launched in the wake of the NZYQ High Court decision, and to administer a scheme to manage potentially dangerous criminals released into the community.

A dedicated fund of $5.6m over four years, and $700,000 for future years, will help cover legal assistance for the government in litigation relating to community safety orders that have arisen in the fallout from the landmark judgment.

Those funds, announced as part of the federal budget, will also assist the Attorney-General’s department in administering a community safety order scheme, which concerns criminals that have been released into society from immigration detention.

More than 148 people have been released from immigration detention since the NZYQ decision was handed down at the end of last year. The court found it unlawful for the government to indefinitely detain migrants who had committed serious crimes.

Labor has been quietly dealing with cases of detainees who have taken issue with monitoring conditions enforced on them – including ankle bracelets and curfews – after being released as a result of the NZYQ decision.

In one case, a Cuban entertainer known as XTVC who had been indefinitely detained after sexually assaulting a woman at a party, successfully argued the electronic monitoring conditions imposed on him interfered with his “privacy, dignity and bodily integrity”.

“The electronic monitoring condition requires that the plaintiff wear an ankle bracelet locked to his leg at all times and indicates to anyone who sees it that the plaintiff is under continuous surveillance,” he claimed. “The electronic monitoring condition involves a significant invasion of privacy and autonomy.”

He had the conditions removed and the government was required to pay his legal fees.

Unlawful detention cases launched by released detainees seeking compensation due to lengthy imprisonment periods have also been filed against the government in the Federal Court.

The government last week won a High Court case brought by an Iranian immigrant known in proceedings as ASF17.

The Commonwealth, led by Solicitor-General Stephen O’Donoghue KC, successfully argued that the constitutional limit identified in the NZYQ judgment was “not engaged” in the ASF17 matter because of the immigrant’s non-compliance with authorities facilitating his passage to Iran.

The new budget initiatives build on MYEFO measures announced earlier in the year titled “Community Safety Measures in Response to the High Court’s Decision in NZYQ v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs & Anor”.

Some of the broader “financial implications” of the funds are unable to be shared as “publication could impair the Commonwealth’s position in legal actions”.

The budget also revealed a series of other initiatives for the Attorney-General’s department, including $35m for the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to “strengthen its capacity to undertake criminal prosecutions” for the Commonwealth.