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MIGRATION ACT 1958

GENERAL DIRECTION UNDER SECTION 499
AUSTRALIA'S CRIMINAL DEPORTATION POLICY
CRIMINAL DEPORTATION UNDER SECTION 200 OF THE MIGRATION ACT 1958

General Direction – Criminal Deportation – No. 9

PREAMBLE:

This General Direction provides guidance to decision makers in considering the making of deportation decisions under sections 200 and 201 of the Migration Act (the Act).

The object of the Act is to regulate, in the national interest, the coming into and presence in Australia of non-citizens. To facilitate this object the Minister has been given a discretion to deport from Australia those non-citizens who have abused the privilege of residence accorded to them by the Australian community. In exercising this power the Minister has a responsibility to the Parliament and to the Australian community to protect the community from the possibility of further criminal behaviour and to remove from the community those persons whose actions are so abhorrent to the community that they should not be allowed to remain within it.

For the purposes of this direction, a potential deportee is any person who is not an Australian citizen and who has been convicted in Australia of an offence for which the person was sentenced to imprisonment for life or to imprisonment for a period of not less than one year, but only if:

    (a)      the person had been in Australia as a permanent resident either for a period of less than 10 years, or for periods which (when added together) total less than ten years, at the time when the offence was committed; or

    (b)      the person is a New Zealand citizen who has been in Australia as an exempt non-citizen or as the holder of a special category visa for a period of less than 10 years, or for periods which (when added together) total less than ten years, when the offence was committed.

For the purpose of determining whether the person is a potential deportee, all of the following considerations are irrelevant:

      •      the length of time that the person had spent in Australia at the time when the sentence was imposed;
•      whether the person is actually imprisoned for a year;
      •      whether a non-parole period is set at less than one year if the sentence of imprisonment is one year or more.

For the purposes of this direction, family is as defined in regulation 1.12 of the Migration Regulations.

The Australian Government, on behalf of the Australian community, has the right to decide who will reside permanently in Australia, and on what terms. The Parliament has entrusted the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs with the discretion to determine whether potential deportees will be deported from Australia. In exercising that discretion, the Minister