The Morrison Government Is Trying Really, Really Hard To Deport An Mununjali Man From Australia
MP Alex Hawke attempted to overturn a court decision that protects Indigenous non-citizens from immigration laws.
The Morrison Government went to High Court on Wednesday to try and overturn a previous decision that Indigenous non-citizens couldn’t face deportation in Australia.
Māori-Australian Shayne Montgomery has lived here since he was 15, and was later culturally adopted by Brisbane’s Mununjali people. He was sentenced to 14 months imprisonment for aggravated burglary in 2018, and had his visa cancelled soon after, before spending time in immigration detention.
Last November, the Federal Court determined that Montgomery legally shouldn’t have faced deportation because of Indigenous identification. But unhappy with the outcome, the government is now trying to claim that because he isn’t a biological descendant of an Indigenous community in Australia, he therefore isn’t protected from deportation, according to the ABC.
“Whether or not it should be recognised should really be something up to Indigenous peoples and mob themselves, not something for the High Court to be determining about our people again,” said Wamba Wamba man and Constitutional lawyer Eddie Synot to NITV during the first legal challenge.
Immigration Minister Alex Hawke is hoping the recent appeal will overturn precedence from another case two years ago that determined Indigenous Australians were constitutionally not ‘aliens’ and therefore couldn’t be deported — exempting the group from federal immigration laws.
Solicitor General Stephen Donaghue argued on Wednesday on behalf of the Commonwealth that Parliament should be able to define who an ‘alien’ is, and conversely, the boundaries surrounding Indigenous lineage.
Last month, Gunggari man Brendan Thoms — also born in New Zealand — faced the High Court trying to claim millions of dollars in compensation after he wrongly spent more than a year in immigration detention pending deportation.
Independent MP Andrew Wilkie questioned and criticised a Bill by Hawke in February that would lowered the threshold for the Federal Government to deport a non-citizen if they were convicted of a crime with a more than two-year sentence — even if the person wasn’t sent to prison.
The outcome of the latest court case is yet to be determined.