Sex offenders and paedophiles will be deported from Australia more easily under new law

Sex offenders, paedophiles and violent thugs will be deported in greater numbers than ever before in a bid to thwart lenient judges under new laws before Parliament.

Currently non citizens have their visas automatically cancelled if they are sentenced to at least a year in jail – but attempts to deport criminals with shorter sentences can lead to lengthy and costly legal battles.

New laws before the Federal Parliament state offenders guilty of crimes that carry a two-year sentence under ACT law would fail a ‘character test’.

This means they can be kicked out of Australia regardless of how long they are actually jailed for.

The Government hopes the change will stop left-wing judges deliberately sentencing migrants to less than a year in jail so they don’t get deported.

The law will also outline ‘designated offences’ that can lead to deportation including violent and sexual crimes, breaching personal protection orders like AVOs and using or possessing a weapon. 

The Government says the changes, which will apply retrospectively, will allow it to boot out a raft of criminals who previously escaped deportation.

These would include Mauritian stalker Jean Marie Amoorthum who in 2014 was jailed for eight months for trying to force a 22-year-old woman into his car at knifepoint after following her to her boyfriend’s house at 2.40am in Melbourne.

According to a tribunal hearing, he held the knife near her throat and said words to the effect of ‘be quiet or I will cut you’, or ‘I will slice you’ before her boyfriend emerged from inside and shouted at him and he drove off.

The Government refused his visa but in March 2019 the Administrative Appeals Tribunal said he did not fail the character test and allowed him to stay in Australia.

The new law would also apply to a British man and an Indian man who assaulted women and two illegal immigrants who were allowed to settle in Australia despite various crimes.

The law change will be made with an amendment to the Migration Act which passed the lower house in 2019 but has since been stuck in the senate where it will be debated again this week.

Immigration Minister Alex Hawke called on Labor to finally back the new laws. 

‘The Morrison Government takes very seriously the protection of Australians from dangerous, non-citizens involved in criminal conduct,’ he said. 

‘Australians expect us to act swiftly to remove such people, and the Government is working to strengthen its removal powers for this reason.

‘However, these laws have been blocked by Labor since 2019, creating an ongoing threat to our community, and to women and children in particular.

‘Holding an Australian visa is a privilege that dangerous and violent non-citizens do not deserve. Anthony Albanese needs to back these new laws this week for the safety of the community – or explain to all Australians why he will not.’  

Anti-racism and migrant advocacy groups have raised concerns that news laws could mean relatively low-level offending ends in deportation. 

Public Interest Advocacy Centre said the bill would ‘introduce arbitrary and unreasonably low thresholds’ for deportation.

‘This change would catch a much wider group of people who may have received only very light sentences or committed only minor offences,’ the group said in a statement.

‘This Bill could see refugees and people seeking asylum who have been in Australia for years forcibly sent back to their country of origin to face persecution or serious harm when they fail this further widened, discretionary ‘character’ test.’ 

But the Government says the new law will be used to target to serious crimes perpetrated by criminals who pose a risk to the Australian community.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Mr Albanese for comment. 

Immigration Minister Alex Hawke is calling on the Labor Party to pass the new laws