Andrew Giles, Clare O'Neil blindsided by immigration detention ruling

While, as was to be expected, the opposition pulled out all its organ stops during question time, much of the criticism was - for once - justified.

The first duty of any government is to keep its citizens safe. You don't do that by releasing convicted murderers, sex offenders and other criminals into the community on short notice and with apparently very limited supervision.

This apparently has happened because the government failed to consider the possibility a legal challenge by a Rohinga man, a convicted child sex offender, against indefinite immigration detention might succeed.

The Immigration Minister Andrew Giles and the Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil were clearly completely blindsided by the High Court ruling that indefinite detention was illegal last Wednesday.

That ruling takes precedence over a previous High Court finding it was legal for the government to detain people indefinitely "so long as they were removed from Australia as soon as reasonably practicable".

The latest decision appears to hinge on the fact no other country is willing to take a significant number of the people in immigration detention with the result they had no prospect of being released.

While this finding is sensible, defensible and just, it has fallen foul of the law of unintended consequences.

Because the government had not considered the possibility the ruling may go against it, ministers have been left scrambling to catch up ever since.

It was made apparent during question time on Thursday that no thought had been given to how former detainees would be housed, supervised and regulated until after the decision had been announced.

As a result of this lack of foresight at least 83 people, the majority of whom were in detention after completing jail sentences, failing the character requirements for release into the community or on national security grounds, are now at liberty.

It is understood that up to 93 detainees may be affected by the judgement.

Reports have already emerged government assurances visa conditions had been imposed and that suitable controls had been put in place before individuals were released are, at best, questionable.

At least some of the former detainees have been given letters stating that "at least for now" their status was "an unlawful non citizen".

This makes a mockery of claims by the Foreign Minister Penny Wong that detainees had been placed on bridging visas that allow them to be monitored and to keep the community safe.

And, worse still, there have been reports a number of Western Australian detainees were bussed to a motel and left free to roam with little or no visible supervision.

READ MORE:

That's just not good enough. It's also why the government has been cobbling together hastily conceived legislation that would give it the power to use ankle bracelets and curfews to control the movements of high risk former detainees.

Given such draconian measures are anathema to many crossbenchers and the Greens the government needs the support of the opposition to pass its legislation.

The opposition, however, argues the measures don't go far enough and say the former detainees should be rounded up and put back in detention.

An own goal by the Albanese government has left it with little bargaining power and a limited range of options.