When it was announced late on Friday that Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke had locked in a new deal with Nauru to take Australia’s unwanted migrants, it felt like Groundhog Day. Another secret deal, another truckload of money, another attempt to abandon people offshore and rid the government of a political problem.

Nauru has a long history of accepting asylum-seekers for the Australian government.Credit: Angela Wylie/SMH design

In the wake of the High Court’s ruling in NZYQ in late 2023, the government has been trying to remove about 350 “undesirable immigrants” from the country. In that case, the court held unanimously that it was unconstitutional for Australia to keep people in indefinite immigration detention. The Australian government doesn’t want them in our community, but for $408 million up front, and a further $70 million per annum, Nauru has agreed to take them.

This is contingent on a new bill passing federal parliament that would strip away all due process rights to get around a series of other legal........

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