The High Court’s latest ruling on false imprisonment exposes the legal, financial and human consequences of Australia’s punitive immigration detention system, and the political refusal to abandon cruelty as policy.

Australia’s mistreatment of immigration detainees, particularly asylum seekers and those who have had their visa cancelled, has been notorious for over two decades. It has been marked by, among many things, inhumanity and unlawful actions. And it has been hideously expensive. This week’s High Court ruling on false imprisonment of detainees is another reminder of the consequences of this hardline approach.

The High Court’s decision which found that the Commonwealth could not rely on a novel defence to a claim of false imprisonment has its genesis in the Court’s landmark 2023 decision called NZYQ. In that case the Court overturned a 2004 decision, and ruled that the Commonwealth cannot detain a person who does not have a visa where ‘there is no real prospect of removal of the [detainee] from Australia becoming practicable in the reasonably foreseeable future’.

This case impacted an estimated number of around 340 people. The consequence of the High Court’s decision was that these individuals had been unlawfully detained. In other words, the Commonwealth is liable for damages payments for........

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