Labour has slammed the Government for being much too slow to react to an Australian law change made a year ago, which saw non-Australians who were sentenced to a year or more in prison automatically lose the right to live in Australia.
The new law also gives the Australian Immigration Minister the right to deport someone deemed to have failed the "good character" test.
One of those being held, Ngati Kanohi Te Eke Haapu, also known as Ko, a former New Zealand soldier who guarded Prime Minister John Key in Afghanistan, has been ordered out of the country on "character" grounds even though he has committed no crime.
Justice Minister Amy Adams said that criticism of the Government was unwarranted, and she had acted as soon as she was briefed on the issue, on February 11.
"The work has been moving since that time. Suggestions that somehow the writing of the bill is when the work is done represents a fundamental misunderstanding of the process.
(In) the work of putting together a new regime, the drafting is the very last piece."
Ms Adams has confirmed that murderers, rapists and child sex offenders had already been deported from Australia to New Zealand this year.
They would remain under no obligation to co-operate with authorities, as the new law would not be retrospective.
Ms Adams said today that deportees arriving in New Zealand would not all be serious criminals. About 40 per cent would be deported on character grounds and not because of jail sentences.
Labour's justice spokeswoman Jacinda Ardern said the urgency used by the Government would mean the legislation would contain mistakes, and the public would not have a chance to have its say.
However, Labour would support the law as its over-riding concern was to keep New Zealanders safe.
Yesterday, Labour's foreign affairs spokesman David Shearer said the Government could only hope the new regime was in place in time for the arrival of "Con Air".
"That is a disgrace, when this Government knew last year on December 14 that Australia had changed its laws.
"Here we are, with two weeks of Parliament to go and we are ramming through a piece of legislation that should have been written months ago."
The plane arriving this week will carry New Zealand citizens who have lodged appeals against their deportation from Australia.
Speaking to Radio New Zealand this morning, Ms Adams said she didn't know where the first flight would touch down.
"I'm not going to be at the airport meeting them. Police, Corrections, social agencies will be meeting them," she said.
An amendment put forward by Ms Adams will see the new law reviewed by a select committee after 18 months, instead of two years as originally drafted.
Attorney-General Chris Finlayson said in a report that he considered the bill to be consistent with the Bill of Rights Act, except for provisions that will give police the power to order a bodily sample from certain returning offenders.
In 2009, Mr Finlayson said clauses in the Criminal Investigations (Bodily Samples) Amendment Bill were inconsistent with the right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure, with his report focusing on the absence of any judicial oversight or other safeguards of the kind found in comparable schemes overseas.
The law passed today will extend that regime to certain returning offenders.
