Senior Australian MP Calls New Zealand’s Deportation Plan ‘Taking Out the Trash’ in News Report ‘Disturbing’

An Australian news outlet has come under fire after being invited onto the track to watch the deportation of kiwis and quoted a senior Australian government minister as describing New Zealanders as “rubbish”.

An advocate for returnees said the report was inaccurate and could make life more difficult for those arriving in New Zealand, many of whom have lesser sentences.

9 News received extraordinary access from the Australian Border Force, with journalist Jordan Fabris placing a microphone in front of a deported woman and asking, “Our country doesn’t love you, are you excited to go home?”

The subject of 501 deportees has been a hot topic in New Zealand, with the influx of criminals making waves in the underworld and leading to a number of high-profile crimes.

The policy, described by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern as having a “corrosive” effect on trans-tasman relationships, has been criticized for its indiscriminate nature that has led to the deportation of New Zealanders who have spent their entire lives in Australia after committing minor crimes.

The Australian Border Deaths Database, compiled by Monash University, has recorded four deaths of New Zealanders associated with visa cancellations, including a man who had been in Australia since he was a young child.

He committed suicide 18 months after being deported to New Zealand following a prison sentence for a series of minor offenses. He left a young boy and his immediate family in Australia.

The 9 News report, which sees Fabris directly questioning deportees, also includes inflammatory remarks from Australian Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, who told the channel that the flights were Australia’s way of “taking out the garbage.” .

“We are talking about the most serious offenders here and our country is safer for having deported them,” he said.

Given the opportunity to question the deported woman, Fabris asks: “How does it feel to be expelled from Australia?”

When the woman tells him to “fuck off”, Fabris responds, “Our country doesn’t love you, are you excited to go home?”

The report shows that several criminals are being loaded onto the plane, including Grant David Mitchell, a New Zealander jailed after murdering his estranged Kiwi girlfriend, Nella Poli, and fleeing the police for nearly 24 years.

But a woman who works with deportees in New Zealand says the report did not accurately reflect the reality of politics and could make life more difficult for returnees.

Aimee Reardon, who works with returnees in her role as the Prisoner Aid and Rehabilitation Society (PARS), told the Herald that returnees already had trouble thinking that locals recognized or looked at them, when they were not always the case. .

He said the report does not accurately reflect the proportion of New Zealanders who return with relatively minor charges, saying they make up the majority of deportees, and characterized Peter Dutton’s comments as “ignorant”, saying the minister was “misinformed.”

He also said that racism played a role in the way the policy was enforced, and said there were “ulterior motives” at play.

He said his comments would hit the returnees a lot, many of whom already needed advice to “see themselves as people” again.

He said he has spoken to a returnee who was “really upset” after seeing the report and worried that his family in Australia might see it and it could affect the perceptions of people in his new community.

9 news items have been contacted for comment.

Diplomatic stoush

Australia’s deportation of New Zealand-born offenders has been a sticking point in our diplomatic relationship with “The Lucky Country” since they began enforcing the policy in 2014, under section 501 of the Australian Migration Act. .

Many have no ties to New Zealand, moved to Australia at a young age and grew to have families and put down roots.

The problem came to a head early last year, when Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern criticized her Australian counterpart Scott Morrison during a joint press conference.

“The relationship of New Zealand and Australia is being tested,” he said, pointing to disparities in many areas of how the respective countries treat each other’s citizens before targeting Morrison for the deportation policy.

“We have a simple request. Send kiwis, genuine kiwis, don’t deport your people and your problems,” Ardern said.

He noted that some deportees had found their way to crime years after leaving Aotearoa, noting that when they left they were “too young to become patched gang members. Too young to be organized criminals.”

“We will own our people. We ask that Australia stop exporting theirs,” Ardern said.

Morrison ignored the comments, saying there would be no change as the policy “was not directed at any country or nationality.”

“It is a statement from Australia’s immigration and border laws that if non-citizens commit crimes in Australia, then they have violated the terms of being in this country.”