A timeline tabled in the Senate in February showed Home Affairs officials met Giles’ office on several occasions in September and October to workshop what to do if the government lost the case brought against it by the lawyers for NZYQ,a Rohingya paedophile in indefinite detention as he could not be deported.

During a Senate estimates hearing on February 12 this year,Home Affairs general counsel Clare Sharp said officials met Giles’ office on August 8,September 14 and October 12 to discuss the case. The minister was not present.

Opposition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan said:“The fact that he didn’t bother to show up to the meetings is damning.”

Australian Border Force officials had also briefed state police on potential implications in October,before standing up a joint operation with federal police on November 10.

But a Home Affairs response to a freedom-of-information request submitted by this masthead said no draft legislation was found before the November 8 decision. Released documents show Giles approved departmental submissions to change the Migration Act on November 13 and 15,before the legislation was introduced on November 16.

“The measures in the bill,and the proposed legislation,have been developed at rapid pace in the period from 10 to 15 November 2023,” the November 15 submission says.

This mastheadrevealed on November 28 that the government was also considering preventative detention laws to lock up the worst offenders from the cohort again,which passed both houses of parliament by December 6 as part of the second tranche of measures in response to the ruling.

A government spokesperson said the government introduced a scheme for preventative detention within a week,referring to the time frame when officials drafted the laws from November 29,to the date they passed. “By contrast,the former Liberal government took six months to introduce their scheme for terrorists,” the spokesperson said.

No preventative detention applications have been made,with Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil repeatedly cautioning the legal threshold to bring them to a judge was high.

Sharp said officials begandiscussing the possibility of preventative detention in September,before taking options to O’Neil and Giles on October 3 – more than a month before the landmark ruling.

It comes as the government faces the prospect of more people being released from immigration detention if it loses another High Court challenge over whether detainees who refuse to co-operate with moves to deport them can be freed. The High Court will hand down its decision on Friday.

Labor has now accused the opposition of stalling critical legislation that could act as a backstop if it loses the case,after Labor tried to ram through its third tranche of immigration detention laws in March before it was deferred to a Senate inquiry.

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