AFP accused of copying from an unverified website in application to deport Descendant chiefs Perry and Tom Mackie

A lawyer for two bikie brothers facing deportation has accused federal authorities of copying large tracts of an unverified website to prove his client’s criminality.

A lawyer for a pair of bikies facing deportation has accused federal authorities of cutting and pasting information about his clients straight from an unverified website.

Brothers Perry and Thomas Mackie are fighting their deportation back to New Zealand after their Visas were cancelled by then Human Affairs Minister Peter Dutton.

During a hearing on Friday before the Federal Court Stephen McDonald SC, for both men, said the Home Affairs Minister had failed to afford them natural justice.

Justice Anthony Besanko heard that one of the grounds for cancelling the visas was the role of the brother’s in attempting to unite biker gangs against legislation targeting their organisations in 2009.

Both Mackies viewed proceedings via video link from immigration detention where they are awaiting the outcome of their application for judicial review.

Mr McDonald said the Home Affairs Minister had made the decision to cancel the visas at the request of the Australian Federal Police for national security reasons.

Both men have been in Australia since the 1970s when they moved to Adelaide as teenagers.

They were founding members of the Descendants motorcycle gang, elements of which police suspect of running large scale methamphetamine trafficking operations.

Descendants bikie Perry Mackie who is facing deportation to New Zealand alongside his brother Tom. Picture: Facebook

Mr McDonald argued that information placed before the Minister when he was making the decision to cancel the visas had been copied from an unverified website on bikie gangs which includes no references or sources.

“They have literally just pulled together information in the public domain,” he said.

“There is no filtering to identify any breaches of the criminal law.”

He said the information from the federal police was not criminal intelligence but publicly available from a website which purports to be the “single source of information on outlaw motorcycle clubs”.

Tom Mackie, senior member of Descendants, who is facing deportation to New Zealand alongside his brother Perry.

Counsel for the Home Affairs Minister said that any mistake made as a result of the information was not so serious as to undermine the final decision to cancel the Mackie’s visas.

A second submission by federal police to the Minister was that the Mackies were unwilling to obey Australian laws in part because of their opposition to anti-biker laws.

The Minister’s decision specifically mentioned that the pair had “played a strong role in uniting” bikie gangs against the legislation as a reason to cancel the visas.

The pair both have criminal records, but nothing new in more than 20 years.

The Descendants, the court heard, were accused of playing a strong role in unifying other gangs against the legislation.

On at least one occasion senior members of other gangs congregated the at Descendants headquarters in Adelaide to discuss avenues to fighting the laws.

Mr McDonald said articles in The Advertiser in which the Perry Mackie discussed starting a political party to fight the laws were expressions of freedom of political communication, not evidence of criminal intent.

Political communication is protected by the Constitution.