Nicholas Reece: Dusty’s dad, Shane Martin, is the victim of a flawed system
WATCHING your son play in a Grand Final would be one of the highlights of any father’s life. And Shane Martin should be at the ’G cheering Dusty, writes Nicholas Reece.
Opinion
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FOR any father, for any family, it would be one of the highlights of your life: watching your son play in the AFL Grand Final at the MCG.
Shane Martin should be at the ’G on Saturday cheering his son, Dustin. His other son, Bronson, who served in Afghanistan, should be there with him.
KEY NZ MEETING WITH MANAGER RALPH CARR KEPT DUSTIN A TIGER, SHANE MARTIN REVEALS
WITH DUSTIN MARTIN’S DAD, SHANE, IN AUCKLAND ON BROWNLOW NIGHT
But Shane Martin is stuck in New Zealand, locked up and then deported by Immigration Minister Peter Dutton for being of “bad character” as a result of his association with a motorcycle gang and past criminal offences.
It seems past crimes for which you have done your time, or guilt by association through membership of a bikie gang, is enough to get you kicked out of Australia these days. Even if you have built your life and raised a family here for more than 30 years.
This is not a black and white debate. Community safety should be of paramount concern. But the basic principles of our justice system provide a very important, but perhaps less visible, protection for all of us.
Maybe the story of a proud father and his Brownlow Medal-winning son could be the example that fires a long overdue debate about how far the scales have been tipped against justice under Australia’s immigration policies.
Shane Martin is no choirboy. He was chapter president of the Rebels in Camden, southwest of Sydney, and has a criminal history dating to 1990 that includes drug offences, unlawful assault and burglary. He moved from NZ to Australia when he was 20 and lived here for 30 years but didn’t take Australian citizenship. Like most Kiwis, he lived and worked in Australia under our special Trans-Tasman Travel Agreement.
Using special new powers under Section 501 of the Immigration Act, Dutton cancelled Martin’s visa and had him placed in detention to await deportation. No judge, no jury, just the stroke of the minister’s pen, based on the view that Martin had the elusive trait of “bad character”. Under the Act, that includes residents with past criminal convictions and membership or an association with “criminal organisations”, which includes a motorcycle gang.
Dutton is a former Queensland police officer who has enjoyed great political success with his “tough on crime, tough on refugees” approach. Deporting bikies no doubt polls well and makes great headlines. Let’s face it, bikies are about as popular as smallpox in the general community.
But in terms of upholding a fair and transparent justice system, this case is a shocker. Guilt by association is a dubious and dangerous notion, while innocence until proven guilty is a foundation principal of the criminal law.
Martin’s last conviction was more than 13 years ago, when he received a two-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months. But at the stroke of Dutton’s pen he was locked up and deported. In fact the biggest group of people now in immigration detention is New Zealanders. Remember when detention was meant to be about “stopping the boats”?
If Australians were being subject to this treatment in other countries, we would be outraged.
As public pressure has grown around Martin’s plight, the minister has suggested the decision to keep him out of Australia rests on both public and confidential information from police, ASIO, the Australian Crime Commission and other agencies. Why can’t that evidence be put before an open court so it can be tested and the public can see justice is being done?
Earlier this year the High Court found Dutton’s decision to deport two other men accused of being Rebels bikie members was unlawful. In response, the minister rushed through new legislation to thwart their return and that of other bikie members.
Martin’s case is not isolated. There are numerous cases of Australian residents who have been deported under questionable ethical considerations.
DURING the Howard years, the Australian government deported Robert Jovicic to Serbia for a string of burglary and drug offences, despite him arriving in Australia when he was two and living here for 38 years. He spoke no Serbian and camped homeless outside the Australian embassy in Belgrade.
In 2006, the government deported Stefan Nystrom to Sweden for a variety of sexual assault and armed robbery convictions. He was born in Sweden and moved here when he was less than a month old. A ruling by the UN Human Rights Committee found his deportation was a fundamental breach of his human rights. I am not defending the deplorable criminal behaviour of these individuals. But Australia can’t dump its problems abroad. If somebody has spent most of their life in this country then at some point we own the problem. We need to take responsibility, whether we like it or not.
Politically, the government loses little by tipping the scales against justice. But the rest of us do.
Nicholas Reece is a principal fellow at the University of Melbourne and host of Politics HQ on Sky News.
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