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Malta-born Australian's repatriation on sex offences quashed by appeals tribunal
The Australian Herald Sun has reported that the Federal Government decided that a convicted repeat sex offender born in Malta should be deported to his birthplace after serving a seven-year jail sentence.
4 September 2010, 12:00am
Matthew Vella
Matthew Vella
1 min read
The Sun says the federal Administrative Appeals Tribunal has overturned the decision because the criminal, who cannot be named, is deemed to be "virtually" an Australian.
The man is in jail for attempting to have sex with his 12-year-old stepdaughter and raping his estranged wife. He is on the sex offender registry and has convictions for assault, burglary and cultivating drugs. The man, now 34, was born in Malta and came to Australia at the age of four.
After finishing his jail term, he was placed in an immigration detention centre to await deportation after the Federal Government found he had failed a character test.
But then the AAT stepped in, finding in his favour despite the fact it acknowledged his repeated serious criminality. The AAT also acknowledged that his risk of reoffending was "low to moderate".
The Herald Sun said the man has been here since he was a child and cannot speak Maltese. "What raises concerns are some of the justifications given for the man to stay in Australia. Among reasons given by the AAT are that he supports an AFL football team and enjoys tennis, volleyball and motor racing. Thus he is deemed "virtually" an Australian person," the newspaper reports.
Matthew Vella, a freelance journalist at MaltaToday, was formerly executive editor at Malt...
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What is also interesting is that the applicant/offender was represented by the Refugee and Immigration Centre and I assume the legal costs of his defence cost him nothing. I have looked at the decision and I can tell you I would not have arrived at the same decision as Senior Member Handley. This is part of the conclusion: "The Applicant is virtually an Australian person. He supports an Australian Rules football team. He also enjoys tennis, volleyball, badminton and soccer. He enjoys motorbike and motor car racing and his hero was Peter Brock. He is familiar with Australian culture and the English language. Should he return to Malta, he does not have people who would support him or who could assist him in locating employment or accommodation. He probably would not be able to communicate with them. Assuming that they could be located, it is unlikely that any family in Malta would support him because he would be regarded as a stranger and those persons would more than likely be offended by the circumstances which would have given rise to him being deported." Does anyone care?
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What is significant here is that the Maltese-born Australian is not an Australian citizen and only a permanent resident. The government would not and could not have ordered his deportation if he were a citizen. In these cases, you have to look closely at what his submission to the AAT consisted of. Newspapers tend to report half of the story. You also have to look closely at his criminal record.
