Visa row criminal in last-ditch bid to stay

A New Zealand-born criminal who became one of the faces of last year’s Direction 99 debacle has launched a final bid to remain in Australia in a crucial legal test for Labor’s attempts to wrest back control of immigration.

New Zealand national Glenn Taylor. Picture: Facebook

A violent New Zealand-born criminal who became one of the faces of last year’s Direction 99 debacle has launched a final bid to remain in Australia in a crucial legal test for Labor’s attempts to wrest back control of immigration.

Glenn Taylor terrorised his family and neighbours, racking up a total of 35 convictions, but will fight to remain in Australia at Sydney’s Federal Court on Monday, arguing the government made an “error of law” in cancelling his visa.

The Australian revealed in July 2024 how Taylor, who arrived from New Zealand aged about four, had been offending since 1993 and has a history of domestic violence against former partners.

NSW single mother Jesica Mills, a neighbour Taylor terrorised, told The Australian that she and her children were “living on eggshells” when they lived next door to the offender.

“No family should have to go through what we went through,” Ms Mills said in July 2024.

After a 2023 conviction and 14-month custodial sentence for a raft of harassment and intimidation offences, Taylor had been spared deportation in February 2024 under Direction 99 at an Administrative Appeals Tribunal, given his strong ties to the country and an existing brain injury.

The then immigration minister Andrew Giles cancelled Taylor’s visa in the “national interest” last July after The Australian revealed his litany of offences.

Multiple apprehended violence orders taken out against Taylor to protect victims are also set to expire next month, heightening the significance of Monday’s hearing.

Former immigration minister Andrew Giles. Picture: Martin Ollman

Taylor’s solicitor South West Migration and Legal Services will argue, and have to prove, that Mr Giles made a jurisdictional error in cancelling their client’s visa.

Legal experts said while each judicial review was “specific to a particular decision”, the burden of proof was on the applicant – Taylor – to prove the minister made an error of law.

“There’s no right of appeal of a minister’s decision,” said Hamish Glenister, a legal practitioner at Perth-based William Gerard Legal.

“You can apply for a judicial review and allege that the minister made a jurisdictional error – an error of law – in making his decision.”

Mr Glenister said Monday’s review would not be a “merit” case, and that anything unrelated to an error of law would be “effectively irrelevant”.

“(Taylor) can’t go to the court and say I disagree (with the decision) because of ‘x, y, z’,” he said, adding that proving a minister made an error of law was “usually very difficult”.

“You can’t put new evidence (to the court) ... It’s even harder when it comes to a personal decision of a minister.”

Calling it a “very tricky area of law” and “hard to challenge”, Mr Glenister said any argument would have to challenge the written reasons of the minister himself (in cancelling his visa) “and nothing else”.

Jesica Mills. Picture: Liam Mendes

Barrister Greg Barnes said the court would be looking solely on whether there was an error of law in Mr Giles’ decision, such as a failure to consider or properly assess relevant material or arguments.

Much-maligned Direction 99 had allowed convicted sex and violent offenders to stay by forcing the AAT to place “primary consideration” on a criminal’s ties to Australia in their decision making.

Mr Giles was forced to replace the flawed ministerial direction with a new order, Direction 110, before he was stripped of the immigration portfolio in a ministerial reshuffle last July.

Taylor’s 2023 conviction triggered the mandatory revocation of his visa when a Gosford Local Court magistrate handed Taylor a 14-month sentence for a total of eight convictions – two counts of stalking and harassment, two counts of assaulting police officers, destroying property, contravening two apprehended violence orders, and threatening someone.

Taylor has a brain injury, sustained in 1997, which the AAT said was a “mitigating factor” and a “significant impediment” to resettling in New Zealand, and he suffered from alcohol and drug issues.