Concern over killer's Kaikohe move

Tai Tokerau Labour MP Kelvin Davis is concerned that a woman convicted of a brutal murder in Perth is living in Kaikohe without formal monitoring.

Tai Tokerau Labour MP Kelvin Davis has called for a law that enables authorities in New Zealand to monitor criminals deported from Australia after he says a woman convicted of a brutal murder in Perth is living in Kaikohe without formal monitoring.

His call for a transtasman reciprocal agreement came after a woman was deported from Western Australia recently after serving time for murder. Mr Davis said any such law should also apply to those deported to Australia from New Zealand.

Rebecca Papalii and two others were sentenced to life in 2005 for the kidnap and murder of Aboriginal boy Cleon Jackson in Perth in 1999.

The 14-year-old was hog-tied, beaten and burnt with cigarettes over five hours by Papalii, Derrin Bardsley and a male accomplice before his body was dumped in bushland. Police said at the time it was a vicious and racially-motivated murder.

Papalii, a former prostitute, was ordered to serve a minimum of 12 years and was released on parole last week by the Australian Prisoners Review Board, which said the remainder of her rehabilitation could only be achieved in New Zealand. However, it acknowledged there would be difficulties monitoring her in New Zealand.

Papalii now lives with her mother in Kaikohe where no one monitors her. The Advocate could not contact her yesterday but she has been quoted elsewhere saying she is no danger to the public and wants to move on with her life after serving her sentence.

Mr Davis, Labour's police and prisons spokesman, said neither the Australian nor New Zealand authorities were responsible for ensuring she adhered to her parole conditions. He said similarly there was no monitoring of Australian nationals who were deported back home after serving time in New Zealand jails.

"There's obviously a gap in the system in that there are no checks and balances for those that get deported to New Zealand after serving time in Australia and I think some sort of reciprocal agreement should be put in place," Mr Davis said.

He said people would be deported to New Zealand in future so both countries needed to come up with a system where they could be monitored.

"The first priority is public safety and it's [reciprocal agreement] also about information sharing and I don't think it should be hard for the Australian authorities to inform New Zealand authorities once a prisoner gets deported."

He said Papalii had no obligation to inform the Australian Prisoners Review Board of her whereabouts in New Zealand or how she planned to live her life.

"Bearing in mind that if they've done their time they've done their time but it just seems strange that they are monitored in one country but not in another. It [reciprocal agreement] doesn't have to be onerous monitoring but just checking things are okay or how are they assimilating back in the community here," he said.

National MP for Northland Mike Sabin said he was not familiar with Papalii's case but he would refer the matter to Corrections Minister Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga.