George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Lindgren. One of the claims that was made by the Greens—ignorantly, I am bound to say—was that the detention centres on Nauru were conducted by Australia, that Australia was in fact the nation that detained people at those processing centres. A majority of the court held clearly, as a matter of law—not as a matter of politics, Senator Hanson-Young, as a matter of law—that that was not so. In the joint judgement of the Chief Justice and Justices Kiefel and Nettle, they said this:

… the restrictions applied to the plaintiff are to be regarded as the independent exercise of sovereign legislative and executive power by Nauru.

Justice Keane said:

The plaintiff's detention in Nauru was not detention in the custody of the Commonwealth. … The plaintiff's detention in Nauru was in the custody of the Republic of Nauru. That is because the legal authority by which she was held in custody in Nauru, an independent sovereign nation, was that of Nauru and not that of the Commonwealth.

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