Descendants bikie bosses launch final appeal against deportation

Almost three years after their visas were revoked, Descendants bikie gang bosses Tom and Perry Mackie have launched a final appeal to stay in Australia.

Bikie kingpins Tom and Perry Mackie have made a last-ditch appeal to have their deportation from Australia overturned.

Almost 11 months after the two Descendants bikie gang members lost a High Court appeal to have the decision quashed, the pair have appealed to the Federal Government to intervene and allow them to stay in Adelaide with their families.

Under the Migration Act, Immigration Minister Andrew Giles has discretion to intervene after examining submissions made in any appeal if it “is in the public interest.’’

The appeal is being considered under the new relaxed changes to the long-held policy of deporting foreign visa holders convicted of serious crimes or those who are deemed to be of bad character.

The relaxation, introduced in March, followed talks between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern over the practice that has seen around 2,000 kiwis deported since 2014.

Tom Mackie, senior member of Descendants.

Descendants bikie Perry Mackie. Source Facebook

Under the new provisions, appeals against deportation must consider how long the individual has resided in Australia and their family ties when making the decision to cancel their visa.

A Department of Home Affairs spokesman declined to comment “on individual cases’’ when contacted about the status of the Mackie’s appeal by the Sunday Mail.

“The Minister has personal, non-compellable public interest powers under section 195A of the Migration Act 1958 to grant a person a visa in immigration detention if they think it is in the public interest to do so,’’ the spokesman said.

“The Minister only intervenes in a relatively small number of cases where they consider that it is in the public interest.

“What is in the public interest is for the Minister to determine.”

The Mackies, who formed the Descendants in 1974 when they arrived in Adelaide from New Zealand, were taken into custody at their Ingle Farm and Prospect homes in December, 2020 after their temporary visas were cancelled on character grounds.

They have been held in the Broadmeadows Immigration Detention Facility in Melbourne since then.

The decision to deport the pair took into account their criminal records, the extensive criminal activities of the gang and their vocal opposition to South Australia’s anti-bikie laws when introduced in 2008.

The High Court move followed a Full Court of the Federal Court decision in July that unanimously dismissed appeals by the pair to overturn a finding in a judicial review by a single judge that sought to quash their deportation orders.

The former clubrooms of the Descendants Motorcycle gang at Dry Creek.

If they lose their final avenue of appeal the Mackie brothers will join more than 300 bikies and organised crime figures to be booted out of Australia on character grounds.

Those kicked out of SA include failed bikie boss and petty criminal Vince Focarelli, senior Mongols bikie Andrew Peter Stevens, Albanian organised crime figure Leonard Gjeka and convicted killers Miho Christian Alavija and Amanda Denise Pemberton.

Stevens, a member of the Finks before it patched over to the Mongols, fought and lost his deportation in the courts.

Focarelli fled Australia before he was forcibly removed while Alavija and Pemberton were deported the day they were released from prison after serving their life sentences.