A general view of the High Court of Australia in Canberra, Australia, on Nov. 5, 2020. AAP Image/Lukas Coch
Australia’s Department of Home Affairs has spent $252.6 million (US$178 million) dealing with criminal immigration detainees freed after a landmark 2023 High Court ruling, a Senate committee has been told.
They are non-citizens, many with criminal convictions, who were released after the court found it was unlawful to keep people locked up indefinitely when there was no real chance of deporting them.
Chief Finance Officer Andrew Harvey gave the figures at a Senate Estimates hearing on Oct. 27, in answer to questions from Liberal Senator Jonathon Duniam.
Harvey revealed the Department spent $50.9 million in taxpayer funds in 2023/24, the year the ruling was handed down, $103.3 million in 2024/25, $88.1 million in 2025/26, and $10.3 million so far this financial year, up to August.
But spending last year fell well short of what the department was given. Harvey said Home Affairs received $127.4 million for the cohort in 2025/26, leaving about $39 million unused.
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The latest figures follow a substantial funding commitment made immediately after the ruling.
The funding included support for Operation Aegis, the joint Australian Federal Police and Australian Border Force operation responsible for compliance and enforcement. This has cost taxpayers $66.7 million since it began.
Harvey said legal costs dealing with the case made up $47.7 million of the total
Some costs could not be given.
Deputy Secretary Michael Thomas said cohort members could get short-term help with accommodation when leaving detention under a wider support programme, but he could not separate out their share and took the question on notice.
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Counter-Terrorism Coordinator Brendan Dowling said that after the most recent group made its own way home, the only Australians left in Syria’s Al-Roj camp was one woman and her child.
He said the federal government was not involved in any effort to bring them back, and he was not aware of any current plans for them to travel to Australia.
He said a number of other Australians of interest to authorities were still overseas.
Dowling said state and territory authorities reported “constructive engagement” with the returned group in countering extremism programs.
“I’ll hesitate to say that today everyone is, because there’s a range of circumstances, including relating to age of the person, and other factors, which means that is fluid. But they have all been engaged to one extent or another in relation to those programmes,” he said.
