Heather du Plessis-Allan: We can't stop Australia deporting NZ-born criminals, but we can help them once they're here

The Australian change of heart on the 501s didn't last long did it, ay? 

They flipped their position today. They've issued a new directive. Now, what this is going to do essentially is it's going to force decision-makers when they’re considering whether to send a 501 back to New Zealand, or wherever else: they now have to put more emphasis on Australian safety when they make their decision. 

Previously, they had to put emphasis on whether the person actually had a connection to Australia. So basically, in a nutshell, what it means is that we're probably going to go back to the ‘bad old days’ of the 501s arriving here. The kind of person who hasn’t lived in New Zealand since they were like 2-years-old or something like that. Not our problem really, but come in anyway. 

Of course, the Aussies had a change of heart. This was always going to happen. There was no way it was going to be a political winner for anyone over there to keep Kiwi-born bad guys in New Zealand when they could just simply send them away. And as predicted, elbows getting a political smashing for allowing the bad Kiwis to stay in Aussie because Jacinda asked him to.  

Now, the thing is: I don't like what's happened today. I'm really sad about what these criminals are doing to the country. Because there's no doubt these bad guys are the most sophisticated bad guys we have seen in a long time. And they’re certainly more sophisticated than the bad guys we're used to in New Zealand. But there is no point in crying about it, or begging them not to do it. They're going to do it.  

This is the reality: We do it too. I mean, just the other day we deported a guy back to South Africa for killing another chap with a with a single martial arts-style kick to the head. That guy, who we sent back to South Africa, was 10 when he moved here. So, we are doing exactly the same thing, as the Aussies are doing.  

As far as I can see, there's nothing we can do to stop it. We've only got one option available to us. If we really, really want to limit how much crime some of these guys fall back into: we have got to spend money on our side of the border setting them up when they arrive here. I think they get something like a couple of nights in a motel and a little bit of spending cash - and then they're on their own. I mean, that's not really going to buy them very much time, is it? That's why very many of them fall back into crime.  

If we really want to stop them from falling back into crime - if we really want to set them up as good citizens - we have got to get them proper accommodation and we've got to get them jobs and it's going to cost us a lot of money. But I'll tell you what: it will cost us less than them heading into jail. We can only control what happens on the side of the border. On the other side - the Aussie side - there's nothing we can do. As proven by the reversal today.

Heather du Plessis-Allan is a journalist and commentator who hosts Newstalk ZB's Drive show HERE - where this article was sourced.