The Limits of Immigration Detention After NZYQ

A recording of an online seminar held on 12 June 2025, hosted by UNSW's Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law and Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, and the Australian Institute of Administrative Law (NSW).

In the November 2023 case of NZYQ v Minister for Immigration, the High Court unanimously held that non-citizens could not be held in immigration detention when there was ‘no real prospect of removal from Australia becoming practicable in the reasonably foreseeable future’. Since NZYQ, numerous cases have tested and refined the limits of this principle, including: ASF17 v Commonwealth; YBFZ v Minister for Immigration; and CZA19 v Commonwealth. This online seminar will explore these developments and the limits of administrative detention.

Speakers
Kate Bones is a Barrister at Banco Chambers with specialist expertise in public and administrative law. Kate appeared for the Human Rights Law Centre and the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law as amicus curiae in NZYQ v the Minister for Immigration and for the plaintiff in YBFZ v Minister for Immigration.

Sanmati Verma is a Legal Director (Principal) of the Human Rights Law Centre. She has specialised in migration law for over 10 years and has represented a number of clients in immigration detention. The Human Rights Law Centre intervened as amicus curiae in NZYQ v the Minister for Immigration and on behalf of AZC20 in ASF17 v Commonwealth.

Douglas McDonald-Norman is a PhD candidate at UNSW Law + Justice, a Barrister at Eight Selborne Chambers, and as of July 2025 will be a Lecturer at UTS Faculty of Law. Douglas specialises in administrative law, migration law and refugee law.

Chair: Anna Talbot is the Coordinator of the Strategic Litigation Network at the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law and a PhD candidate at UNSW Law & Justice.

Please note that the accompanying transcription was auto-generated and may contain inaccuracies or omissions, it is provided for informational purposes only.