Prime Minister John Key, who is in New York, has said he intends raising the deportations and detentions with Australia’s new prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull.
Advertisement
They discussed the suicide of Junior Togatuki in a New South Wales prison two weeks ago.
Almost 200 New Zealanders are being held in Australian detention centres facing deportation and hundreds more have had their visas cancelled.
Togatuki, who left New Zealand when he was four years old, was suffering from schizophrenia and anxiety, and his death has been ruled a suicide.
His sentence for robbery and assault had ended in August, but he was being held ahead of his deportation to New Zealand – the country he had left aged 4.
While Mr McCully was meeting Ms Bishop about Togatuki’s death, Mr Shearer said there was a lack of urgency over the broader deportation issue. “The Government must do something about this now”, Andrew Little says.
Togatuki, 23, had lived in Australia most of his life. Authorities in Australia say he killed himself.
Prof Harris said a great deal had been said in Australia and New Zealand about special historical bonds between the two nations through our mutual involvement in the World War 1 Gallipoli campaign and later military deployments.
It’s understood that in the days leading up to his death, Junior Togatuki was told he’d be deported in a couple of weeks.
“Australians are not treated like this in New Zealand”.
“We support this position and encourage our Government to continue to advocate on behalf of New Zealanders held in Australian immigration detention centres”.
“This follows a recent law change in Australia for non-Australian citizens who have served at least a 12-month prison sentence”.
Some Australian civil rights commentators have suggested that one reason some people, including New Zealanders, were being held in remote detention centres was that this effectively limited their deportation appeal rights, given that lawyers were not always available there.
The Australian Human Rights Commission has the mandate to investigate complaints about detention centres run by the Australian government, says chief commissioner David Rutherford.
Advertisement
As well as opposition parties such as Labour and the Green Party, the Government’s support partner United Future has condemned the new Australian policy as damaging to the transtasman relationship.
