Teresa Rangi was sent to the Villawood Immigration Detention Centre in Sydney when she finished her most recent prison term. Photo / AFP
A New Zealand woman who has lived in Australia for 30 years was warned by authorities three times that her persistent criminal behaviour could lead to her visa being revoked.
Despite this, she continued on her path of stealing, abusing drugs and committing violence, before finally having her visa cancelled under Section 501 of the Australian Migration Act.
A review tribunal decision means that at the age of 42, Teresa Awhina Rangi is now a “501 deportee”, forced to return to New Zealand, a country that she left as a 12-year-old with her parents in 1996.
She will have to leave behind her four children, aged 12 to 18, who have Australian citizenship.
Rangi got into trouble in Australia even as a juvenile, but it is her criminal record as an adult which eventually led to her deportation.
Between 2005 and 2024, she committed 131 offences, according to an eight-page criminal record appended to a decision from the Australian Administrative Review Tribunal.
Her offending includes robbery with violence, assault occasioning bodily harm, stealing, possessing dangerous drugs, possessing a knife in a public place, receiving, assaulting police, and failing to take reasonable care with syringes or needles.
Rangi’s most recent offences were committed in December 2024 - assaults occasioning actual bodily harm, common assault, illicit drug offences, theft, and receiving stolen property.
She was convicted and sentenced in the Magistrate’s Court in Brisbane to nine months of imprisonment for the assault occasioning bodily harm and lesser concurrent sentences for the other crimes.
Earlier, Rangi narrowly avoided being jailed in 2012, after she acted as the getaway driver in a spate of armed robberies in Brisbane.
The judge gave her immediate parole and said a term of imprisonment was not required after Rangi appeared in the dock pregnant.
However, Rangi did go to prison in 2023, sentenced to 12 months on two charges of stealing.
Section 501 allows officials to revoke a person’s visa to be in Australia if they fail a “character test” - in Rangi’s case she was deemed to have failed it because of her extensive criminal record.
Her visa was cancelled on March 21 last year, and that decision was upheld by a review on October 29, prompting Rangi to appeal to the Administrative Review Tribunal
Tribunal member Lisa Lo Piccolo noted that Rangi had been warned on three previous occasions that she might lose her visa unless she stopped offending.
The first formal warning was made in 2013; the second in 2018; the third time after Rangi’s visa was briefly revoked in 2020.
The 2020 formal warning was expressed in forceful language.
“A stern warning should be issued to her on this occasion, that she must refrain from further offending and continue to rehabilitate, especially given her criminal history involving substance abuses,” it said.
“She should not expect any further leniency especially as this will be her third Section 501 warning.
“The protection and safety of the Australian community is of paramount importance and a salient consideration,” the warning said.
“The Government has a zero tolerance policy on serious offending and this kind of behaviour will not be tolerated again.”
Rangi told the tribunal that she did not remember specifically receiving the warnings.
She said that when the 2020 warning was made, she was abusing drugs and alcohol.
And she kept on offending.
Her criminal record shows more than 70 offences committed after the third warning was given, mainly for stealing but also including assaulting police and drugs offences.
Rangi was sent to the Villawood Immigration Detention Centre in Sydney when she finished her most recent jail term.
She told the tribunal she was remorseful and wanted to move to Melbourne to reunite with her parents and her children, who have lived there for about 10 years.
“Following extensive discussions, the applicant and her family have agreed that the most appropriate pathway for her rehabilitation and long-term stability is for her to move to Melbourne and reside with her parents,” the tribunal decision said.
“She is willing and motivated to reach out to and engage with support services located close to her parents’ home.”
However, Lo Piccolo said that the seriousness of Rangi’s offending was such “that any risk of reoffending is unacceptable”.
She said that Rangi had expressed remorse in the past, and had later reoffended.
Rangi had claimed to be drug-free at different times over many years and had always relapsed, including taking drugs in prison.
She had seen her children face-to-face on average once a year and had not met them physically since 2024.
Her 16-year-old son had been cared for by her parents since he was 2; the 15 and 12-year-olds since they were newborns.
Lo Piccolo said that the protection of the Australian community and its expectations outweighed Rangi’s ties to Australia and the best interests of her minor children.
She affirmed the decision not to revoke the cancellation of Rangi’s visa.
Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of frontline experience as a probation officer.