Clare O’Neil claims she relied on verbal briefings only for prediction of high court immigration detention win

Despite Clare O’Neil’s claim to have operational advice it was likely NZYQ could be deported, on 31 May the commonwealth conceded that he ‘could not be removed from Australia’. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

The home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, has claimed she relied only on verbal advice when declaring the government believed it would win the NZYQ high court case or succeed in deporting the plaintiff.

O’Neil’s claim is contained in a freedom of information decision from the home affairs department refusing access to “operational advice” about deporting NZYQ, the stateless Rohingya man who won a case overturning the legality of indefinite detention.