The ones Labour are defending

Labour have been battling for weeks and months for the NZ citizens held in detention in Australia as they fight deportation orders, trying to make them the victims. They have glossed over the fact that they have all been sentenced to at least a year in prison. Now I don’t know if Australia is the same as NZ, but in NZ to get a year in prison you need to either be a recidivist offender or a reasonably serious offender. You don’t go to prison for one burglary.

Stuff reports:

A mob of aggressive New Zealanders has been terrorising other detainees inside Christmas Island detention centre for weeks, leaving asylum-seekers fearing for their lives.

Dozens of Kiwis are locked up in the Australian detention facility – many had their visas revoked on character grounds under section 501 of Australia’s Migration Act, earning them the nickname “501s”.

But while they may not have committed crimes, fellow detainees say inside Christmas Island detention centre, the Kiwis are anything but innocent.

A distressed Lebanese detainee told The Australian he feared for his life at the hands of the 501s during a riot that broke out on Monday.

“They’re f***ing going to kill me … We are in danger. You need to tell someone who cares that our prison is in the hands of very serious criminals.”

So it is not the evil Australian Government’s guards they are scared of, but the NZ detainees whom Labour are championing.

He said the New Zealanders had beaten more than 20 weaker detainees over the last month, stealing their phones and other property.

“These Kiwis are like a group. There’s about 25 of them. Very, very strong and they are very, very aggressive. We have problems with them. They call us dogs. Dogs and b****es.

“I got bashed by 14 men … My eyes are destroyed. I cannot see more than 20m. They ­f***ing ­destroyed my life.”

Perhaps not a huge surprise that Australia is deporting them.

Other detainees also blamed the New Zealanders for starting the riot, after escaped Iranian refugee Fazel Chegeni was found dead on the island, far northwest of Australia near Indonesia.

Tuk Whakatutu told Radio New Zealand there was an armed group mostly made up of New Zealanders and Pacific Islanders, who had broken into garden sheds to find weapons.

“They’ve got petrol bombs, they’ve got machetes, they’ve got chainsaws, metal bars, all sorts.

Outstanding citizens.

The New Zealand government has since promised Kiwis who elected to return home would be able to do so in a “matter of days, or at most, a week”, despite the riot.

Potential obstacles to a swift departure included detainees’ lack of travel documents, the need to charter private flights for high-risk offenders, and assessing potential risks that detainees could present upon their arrival.

Justice Minister Amy Adams said Australian Immigration Minister Peter Dutton had confirmed “there would be no prejudice to consideration of the cases of detainees who chose to come to New Zealand in the interim”.

“Further, Minister Dutton gave me an undertaking that any New Zealander wanting to return would not have to bear any of the expense involved in returning to New Zealand,” Adams said. 

“He has previously confirmed that for those who return, if their appeal is subsequently upheld then there would also be no barrier on them returning to Australia.”

But if they come back to NZ, then they don’t have Labour MPs championing their cause to try and paint them as the martyrs.

Labour were all offended when the PM said they were supporting rapists, child molesters and murderers. Well the Herald reports:

The Prime Minister’s office later released figures which showed that out of 585 New Zealanders facing deportation, 34 had been convicted of child sex offences, 22 convicted of murder, and 16 convicted for rape or sex offences.

22 of them are murderers!