Editorial: Luxon must keep pressure on Australian counterpart over 501 deportees

The issue of 501 deportees remains a live one, and one for new Prime Minister Christopher Luxon to prioritise.

EDITORIAL

Fledgling Prime Minister Christopher Luxon prioritised defence and security during his first foray across the Tasman to meet his Australian counterpart.

But how high on the agenda was the still-thorny issue of 501 deportees? Should it have been right at the top?

During his time as Opposition leader, National’s Luxon said he wanted a “tough on crime” stance to 501 deportees, saying the then Jacinda Ardern-led Government needed to keep expressing its displeasure over the policy.

The deportations, often of people who have lived much of their lives in Australia and with no personal connections in New Zealand, became a sore point in relations between the countries, reaching a low in 2021 when Australian Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton referred to the policy as “taking out the trash”.

And the 501s landing here, Luxon railed, had shaken up our criminal underbelly, making gangs more violent and sophisticated.

Now he has his chance to voice his displeasure - and in person.

Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s Labor Government officially relaxed the rules surrounding 501 deportations in what he called a more “common-sense approach”.

It meant that decisions to boot out offending non-citizens would have to take into account the “strength, nature and duration” of their ties to the Australian community.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Photo / RNZ, Samuel Rillstone

“Considerable weight should be given to the fact that a non-citizen has been ordinarily resident in Australia during and since their formative years, regardless of when their offending commenced and the level of that offending,” states an official ministerial direction by the country’s Department of Home Affairs, which manages the deportations of criminals under Section 501 of its migration act.

The number of 501s coming here has halved since the move was made by Ardern’s old left-leaning friend Albanese, resulting in the lowest numbers since the original policy came into force in 2015.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon met with his Australian counterpart this week for the first time. Photo / Mark Mitchell

But two stories making headlines over this side of the ditch this week showed the issue is far from resolved.

Michael Scott Fear, a 57-year-old Australian grandfather who left Aotearoa when he was 2 years old, was deported three weeks ago for decades of criminal offending.

But Fear says he will struggle in a country he hasn’t set foot in since he was a baby in the 1960s.

It comes just days after an Auckland District Court judge who was sentencing a Comanchero gang’s cash courier made comments about the effects of the controversial Australian immigration policy.

“It’s not for me to comment on the policies of a foreign government. But what I will say is we all know is the effects of that policy are brutal,” said Judge Evangelos Thomas.

While the Albanese Government has made significant progress on the legislation variously described by human rights groups as draconian, cruel and inhumane, “501s” are still washing up on our shores adrift, without any family, support networks, or reasonable chances of making it without falling back into criminal circles.

Luxon will be itching to foster a robust relationship with our closest ally, but he must keep leaning on Albo to improve the lot of Kiwis living in the Land Down Under.