NZ-born crook avoids deportation after claiming Aboriginality
A NZ-born criminal used his Aboriginal heritage to thwart attempts by the Federal Government to deport him to his native homeland. His release came just a day after NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Adern slammed Australia’s policy on forced deportation.
NSW
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A Kiwi criminal awaiting deportation after serving a jail sentence for assault has been allowed to stay in Australia because he has Aboriginal heritage.
Three weeks after the High Court ruled it was unconstitutional to deport Aboriginal people, regardless of whether or not they hold Australian citizenship, authorities were on Friday night forced to release the 32-year-old New Zealand-born man from an immigration detention centre.
The court held Aboriginal people are not subject to the “alien” powers in the constitution and therefore cannot be deported.
The man, who was jailed after being convicted of two counts of grievous bodily harm, has lived in Australia since arriving aged four, in 1992.
However, the man never sought to become an Australian citizen, nor was citizenship ever granted.
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The latest release followed New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, last week giving Prime Minister Scott Morrison a rebuke for “testing” the friendship between the two nations over its “unfair” deportation policy.
It can be revealed the man was jailed after being convicted of two counts of grievous bodily harm following the assault of two people, one who is understood to have suffered a serious head injury.
Following his sentencing, the federal government cancelled his Subclass 444 Special Category visa, which allows New Zealanders to visit, study, stay and work in Australia so long as they remain New Zealand citizens.
He was released from a WA immigration detention centre after he provided confirmation of proof of aboriginality.
His release is the second since the High Court decision which ruled that Aboriginal people with sufficient connection to traditional societies were not “aliens”, giving them a special status in Australian constitutional law likely to have ramifications far beyond existing native title law.
On February 11, New Zealander Brendan Thoms walked free from a Brisbane immigration detention centre where he had also been awaiting deportation after his visa was revoked following the completion of his sentence for a domestic violence offence.
Thoms had lived in Australia since 1994 and is a descendant of the Gunggari people by his maternal grandmother.
Separately, the court has ordered another hearing to investigate whether another overseas-born detainee – Daniel Love – who is facing deportation back to Papua New Guinea following an assault occasioning bodily harm conviction – is Aboriginal.
Mr Dutton has slammed the High Court ruling declaring it “a very bad thing” which would be exploited by lawyer.
The Federal Government is still assessing how many people may be affected by the court ruling, and is actively taking steps in obtaining evidence in order to assess potential claims.
Ms Ardern accused Mr Morrison of deporting “your people and your problems” to New Zealand, no matter how long they had spent in Australia.
While not asking the policy to be scrapped entirely, she urged for the government to exclude people who had effectively grown up in Australia.
Originally published as NZ-born crook avoids deportation after claiming Aboriginality