Citation – expert commentary in M Koziol, ‘Australia's asylum seeker deal with Papua New Guinea is valid, High Court rules’, Sydney Morning Herald, 17 August 2017

Description

This discusses a High Court decision which upheld the legality of Australia's asylum seeker deal with Papua New Guinea, ruling it does not breach the Migration Act or the constitution.
The court was asked to reconsider the arrangement struck by former prime minister Kevin Rudd, in light of a court ruling in PNG last year that found Australia's detention of asylum seekers on the island breached that country's constitution.

Citation of my comments:

Maria O'Sullivan, deputy director of the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law at Monash University, said she was "totally unsurprised" by the High Court's latest ruling.

"Trying to argue that the judgment of the PNG Supreme Court ... affects the Australian constitution and how we justify things under the Australian Migration Act is a long stretch," she told Fairfax Media.

"Having said that, there is such an interaction between what Australia does and what's happening in PNG. I'm just not sure whether constitutional arguments are the way to go."