Aboriginal people cannot be considered ‘alien’ to Australia. This may seem like a “no duh” moment but is actually really interesting. The High Court determined this after examining the case of two Aboriginal people who were born overseas but moved to Australia and were charged with criminal convictions and thus were going to be deported – but their lawyers successfully argued that Aboriginal people are a permanent member of the Australian community, have a special connection to the land backed up by native title rights, and that the crown has an obligation to protect Aboriginal society.
Practically speaking, they are still citizens of another country if born overseas, but cannot be considered “aliens.” They occupy a special position in the law – which now means that the precedent has been set to protect future Indigenous Australians from being deported from the country.
Update: the government wants to find some way to legislate around the High Court’s decision and undermine them entirely on this issue because of course it fucking does.
Da fuck…