Small win for ex-bikie Dean Martin in fight against deportation to New Zealand

The bikie uncle of AFL star Dusty Martin will soon learn his fate in his legal fight against a decision to boot him to New Zealand.

Dean Martin with Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe. Picture: Facebook

Detained bikie Dean Martin, the uncle of AFL star Dustin, has claimed a minor victory in his battle against deportation.

The NZ citizen, currently in immigration lock-up after his visa was cancelled, is fighting the federal government’s bid to deport him as he claims he is an Aboriginal man.

And now, after a win in the Supreme Court on Friday, the 56-year-old won’t have to wait months to learn his fate.

Instead, Mr Martin’s case has been listed for a hearing at the end of the month after a judge ruled it shouldn’t be sent to the Federal Court, where it could have faced delay.

Meanwhile, lawyers for the Commonwealth questioned what evidence Mr Martin would be calling, labelling as “hearsay evidence” what he’d so far put forward to defend his indigenous claim.

“At the moment from the (Commonwealth’s) perspective there is very little evidentiary material before the court … on the basis of which the detention is unlawful,” barrister Richard Knowles KC said.

Dean Martin is fighting the federal government’s bid to deport him as he claims he is an Aboriginal man. Picture: Nine News

However, Mr Knowles conceded it was “our onus to establish the lawfulness of detention”.

It’s understood the visa of Mr Martin, who is a former national president of the Rebels outlaw motorcycle gang, was cancelled on character grounds.

But Mr Martin claims in court documents that he’s a recognised member of Tasmania’s Manegin Aboriginal community and therefore “not within reach” of parliament’s deportation powers, as per a 2020 High Court decision.

He claims to have provided genealogical records, a statutory declaration from a Manegin elder and a copy of a resolution from the Aboriginal Corporation Tasmania to the Department of Home Affairs back in October 2021.

Dean Martin remains in immigration detention pending the outcome of the hearing. Picture: David Crosling

In fighting for an expedited hearing, his barrister Matthew Albert argued there would be a months-long delay, at least, for the “lawfulness of my client’s detention to be determined” in the Federal Court.

“We do put delay front and centre,” Mr Albert said.

“On this point I will be a broken record, that is the issue for my client and I dare say it would be the issue for every last one of us if we were in the same boat.”

But Mr Knowles labelled the delay claim “entirely speculative”.

In the end, Justice Michelle Quigley was “more persuaded by the certainty of knowing this matter can be listed in a very short space of time (in the Supreme Court) over what I consider the speculation of when the Federal Court could hear it”.

Her Honour listed the case for a hearing in the Supreme Court on August 28 and 29.

Mr Martin remains in immigration detention pending the outcome of the hearing.