Senator Lidia Thorpe says the government has made a mistake with the pending deportation of former biker boss Dean Martin, claiming he cannot be deported because he is Indigenous.
Mr Martin, a former national president of the Rebels motorcycle gang and uncle of AFL Richmond legend Dustin Martin, was arrested on Monday and will be deported to New Zealand.
He is currently in the custody of the Australian Border Force.
Senator Thorpe said that while she had not spoken to Mr Martin, she believed “the government had made a mistake with this decision”.
“Mr Martin has evidence, support and recognition that he is Aboriginal from the elders and community of Lutruwita, Tasmania,” he said.
“We have already seen the High Court ruling in 2020 that the Commonwealth lacks the constitutional power to deport First Peoples under the Migration Act.
“The 2020 ruling reflected the Mabo decision, which recognised that the connection of Indigenous Peoples to this country has never been severed.
“This connection is recognized by customary law, so categorizing First Peoples as ‘aliens’ is inconsistent with this.
“My question is, why does the government now believe it can go against the law and deport indigenous peoples?”
The Home Department said it could not comment on individual cases.
Mr Martin’s visa has reportedly been cancelled on character grounds, and comes after his brother, Shane, also a former senior Rebels member, was deported to New Zealand in 2018.
Shane died three years later in Auckland.
Mr Martin and Senator Thorpe had “briefly dated”, leading to Senator Thorpe resigning from a leadership position in the Green Party as a result of the undisclosed relationship.
Senator Thorpe, who later left the Greens, then issued a statement accepting that she had “made mistakes”.
“I will now reflect on this and focus on my important work, especially advocating for First Nations peoples,” she said.
