Peter Dutton to consider any request for deportation of Brenton Tarrant

The Home Affairs Minister says the ‘first priority’ is to ensure the murderer remains behind bars for the rest of his life.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton. Picture: NCA NewsWire /Gary Ramage

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton says the government will “work closely” with New Zealand and will consider any request for the mass murderer behind the Christchurch massacre to serve his life sentence in Australia.

Mr Dutton told Nine News on Friday he had not yet received any formal request from New Zealand about the deportation of Brenton Tarrant, who on Thursday was sentenced to life, without the possibility of parole — for the murder of 51 people, the attempted murder of 40 others.

Brenton Tarrant could be deported to Australia. Picture: AFP

Tarrant, who was raised in NSW and is an Australian citizen, has been in custody in New Zealand since his murderous shooting rampage through the Al Noor and Linwood mosques during Friday prayers on March 15, last year.

Mr Dutton said the “first priority” was to ensure Tarrant remained behind bars for the rest of his life, but flagged that if the killer was to return to Australia he would likely serve out his sentence in the NSW prison system.

“We will have to look at what happens to parole and the way our legal system works here,” Mr Dutton said. “The first priority is to keep him in jail for the rest of his life and we will work closely with New Zealand on any requests they provide.”

He said there were “legal complications” due to a lack of consistency across the states and territories when it comes to laws on sentencing.

“I think NSW might be the only state to have life without parole, so it would have to be in NSW,” Mr Dutton said.

Also appearing on Today was New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters, who asked Australia to “step up” over the matter.

“It seems to me that given this unprecedented circumstance and all the regard to the cost to looking after the victims in our country who survived and their families, and also the 50 million plus downstream in real terms of providing safety for this terrorist then the sound, reasonable, logical thing to do would be to ask Australia to step up,” he said.

"The sound reasonable, logical thing to do would be to ask Australia to step up". New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters speaks on sending the Christchurch terrorist back to Australia. #9Today pic.twitter.com/SWskeiqgeS

— The Today Show (@TheTodayShow) August 27, 2020

Mr Peters, who is leading the charge for Tarrant’s deportation, said he was “pleased” to hear Mr Dutton was willing to work with New Zealand to resolve the issue.

Scott Morrison told Today he wanted to do the “right thing” by families who lost loved ones in the mosque shooting.