Australian Prime Minister implements ‘fairer’ 501 deportation policy

A New Zealand 501 deportee being put on a repatriation flight at Sydney airport - one of more than 2500 deported since 2015. Photo / Australian Border Force

Kiwis earmarked for deportation from Australia under its controversial Section 501 policy will have the amount of time they’ve spent across the ditch taken into account.

Australia’s new Labor government signalled a “common sense” approach would be adopted following its election in May last year.

A new policy as set out by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is now in force, according to the country’s Department of Home Affairs, which manages the deportations of criminals under Section 501 of its migration act.

“Under these changes, the Department of Home Affairs must now consider the length of time someone has lived in the Australian community as one of the primary considerations when determining whether to cancel someone’s visa,” the department said in a statement.

“Where individuals pose a risk to the community, the Australian government will continue to cancel their visas and remove them.”

Deportations under the 1958 Migration Act are supposed to target the most hardened criminals who don’t hold Australian citizenship.

However, it has been slammed by deportee advocates due to the number of people who have spent the lion’s share of their lives in Australia.

Many moved to Australia as children and have no connection to the country to which they are deported; advocates say their criminal behaviours are developed in Australia.

Under Australia’s previous Conservative government, dozens of requests from the New Zealand Government to then-prime minister Scott Morrison and home affairs minister Peter Dutton (now Opposition leader) to soften the policy were rebuffed.

Some 300 New Zealanders had applications to be deported lodged against them in the year to March 2021 but, following the new Labor government’s election, there appears to be some evidence that appeals against deportation have been more fruitful.