Deport crims ‘even if they came to Australia as toddlers’, police union boss urges Albo
Foreign criminals should be deported “even if they came to Australia as toddlers”, the Police Federation of Australia boss said as he urged the PM to rethink “watered down” laws for Kiwi crooks. VOTE
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Foreign criminals should be deported “even if they came to Australia as toddlers”, the Police Federation of Australia boss said as he urged Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to reverse his decision to make it harder to cancel the visas of Kiwi crooks.
His call comes ahead of Mr Albanese flying across the ditch on Wednesday for the annual Australia-New Zealand leaders’ meeting, and as concern grows over youth crime.
Strengthening the trade relationship, AUKUS, the rise of China, Taiwan and building closer ties with Pacific nations are expected to be discussed when Mr Albanese meets his New Zealand counterpart Chris Hipkins.
Foreign citizens sentenced to 12 months or more in jail automatically have visas cancelled, while the Home Affairs Minister has discretionary power to cancel visas on character grounds.
It had been a source of tension between Australia and New Zealand, with allegations New Zealanders were disproportionately targeted and former NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern describing it as a “corrosive” policy.
In January, the Albanese Government softened its approach and it now requires authorities to consider how long the criminal had been in Australia before cancelling their visas, a move which is said to have taken a lot of heat out of the relationship between the two countries.
But Police Federation of Australia boss Ian Leavers said this softer approach should be overturned and “good friends” would understand, as he encourage the Prime Minister “not water down” deportation laws.
“Foreign Nationals, even if they came to Australia as toddlers, should be deported once they have completed a prison term for serious offences committed in Australia. It’s what the community expects,” he said.
“There is a standard of law abiding behaviour for everyone living in Australia and if the laws that we all agree to live by are seriously broken the ability to remain in this peaceful country is forfeited.
“It doesn’t matter the country the foreign national originates, good friends of Australia would understand serious criminal behaviour has consequences.”
New Zealand consistently tops the list of countries with the most visa cancellations on character grounds.
But it had already been starting to drop, from 475 deportations in 2019-20, to 249 in 2021-22, while there had been 119 in the first half of 2022-23.
Mr Albanese has previously said the “common sense” decision would not threaten national security.
“But we retain, of course, our right to take action on the basis that it is appropriate action,” he said in January.
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