Rebels boss AJ Graham and Former Bandido Jim Thacker. Photos / Supplied, News Corp Australia
Rebels boss AJ Graham and Former Bandido Jim Thacker. Photos / Supplied, News Corp Australia
Kiwis have made up many of those booted out of the country after losing their visas.
Child sex offenders and murderers were among hundreds of criminals who had their visas revoked last year under laws that require non-citizens sentenced to 12 months or more to lose them.
The majority ofthe group of 800 — about 500 people — had been sentenced for violent crimes.
Rebels boss AJ Graham and Former Bandido Jim Thacker. Photos / Supplied, News Corp Australia
Among them were New Zealand bikie Jim Thacker, who was involved in a Gold Coast brawl, and Rebels motorcycle gang boss Aaron "AJ" Graham, whose visa was revoked on character grounds.
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton previously said among people whose visas were cancelled last year were "some pretty nasty characters".
Rebels bikie boss and Brownlow medallist Dustin Martin's father Shane was deported to New Zealand weeks before his son played in the AFL grand final.
Daniel Maxwell, a New Zealander who was an accomplice in Brisbane teenager Cole Miller's one punch attack death, was caught up in a bureaucratic bungle in August last year when he was released on an 18-month suspended jail term.
The 22-year-old New Zealander was on a night out with his co-accused Armstrong Renata in January 2016 when he repeatedly tried to start fights in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley.
Eventually, they found Cole Miller, who was coward punched by Armstrong Renata and died in hospital a day later from his head injuries.
When Cole's dad realised Maxwell had walked free from court, the grieving father put in a call to Mr Dutton's office — hours later he was rearrested and sent to a detention centre for deportation.
Miller then called in to Ray Hadley's radio show with a tearful message for the minister.
"I'd like to thank Peter Dutton for that, he didn't know me from a bar of soap," Mr Miller told Hadley, before breaking down in tears.
Caleb Maraku ouside the Southport Magistrates Court January 2018. Photo / Channel 9
About the same time, New Zealander Caleb Maraku, 19, escaped a jail sentence for coward-punching teenager Taliesin O'Meara, 19, on the Gold Coast during Schoolies and walked from court laughing.
The incident caught the eye of Dutton, who then cancelled Maraku's visa under discretionary powers he can use if foreigners fail the department's character test.
West Australian bikie Kevin Michael Lawrence, who migrated from the UK in the 1960s but never became an Australian citizen, last year had his visa cancelled while he was visiting Thailand.
Rebels motorcycle club member Kevin Michael Lawrence.
The group of 800 included 100 people involved in child sex offences or child exploitation, 53 people involved in domestic violence, 34 involved in sexual offences and 13 murderers.
Visas were also stripped from 125 people sentenced for assault and 56 for armed robbery.
The latest figures bring the total number of non-citizen criminals stripped of Australian visas to 4150 since 2014, after mandatory cancellation provisions for criminals dealt sentences of 12 months or more were added to the Migration Act.
Last year's cancellations were highest in NSW (about 300), followed by Queensland (190), Victoria (160), Western Australia (120) and South Australia (30).
