Bikie boss Alex Vella demands review of cancelled Australian visa

A solicitor for Alex Vella, the Maltese president of the Rebels Motorcycle Club in Australia, has filed an application calling for the review of immigration minister Scott Morrison’s decision to cancel his visa.

Vella, 60, is banned from re-entering Australia under “character provisions” in the Migration Act.

He migrated to Australia in the 1960s, and has been denied Australian citizenship.

19 days after being left stranded while in Malta, Vella’s solicitor has outlined reasons why he should be given permission to return.

He argued that he had lived in Australia since 1967, had nine siblings, nine grandchildren, a mother and had only ever been convicted on “minor offences”.

Vella’s son Alex said it was time for Scott  Morrison to “make public the reasons for his decision”.

He argued that he had lived in Australia since 1967, had nine siblings, nine grandchildren, a mother and had only ever been convicted on “minor’ offences”.

“We want to know exactly what information the minister used to claim that dad failed the character test,’’ Alex Vella Jnr said. “We haven’t been told anything’.

Queensland premier Campbell Newman, whose anti-bikie law is being challenged in a High Court, has attracted criticism from Australian barristers after he described lawyers defending members of motorcycle clubs as “hired guns [who] take money from people who sell drugs to our teenagers.”