{"id":284991,"date":"2026-02-15T07:10:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T07:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/284991\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T07:10:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T07:10:07","slug":"kiwi-501-with-abhorrent-family-violence-history-cant-return-to-family-in-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/284991\/","title":{"rendered":"Kiwi 501 with \u2018abhorrent\u2019 family violence history can\u2019t return to family in Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"

But he cannot because his visa was revoked under Section 501 of the Australian Migration Act<\/a> while he was in custody. <\/p>\n

This section of the act gives its name to the thousands of \u201c501\u201d criminal deportees who have been sent back to New Zealand in recent years.<\/p>\n

The revocation of the man\u2019s visa is being allowed to stand, despite his wife saying she was struggling with her health and financial worries, and suffering from depression without him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just don\u2019t know how to function without my husband,\u201d she told a tribunal reviewing an immigration officer\u2019s decision to cancel his visa.<\/p>\n

She said the children had various serious health issues and required fulltime care.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The applicant] had begun building my trust and respect again and the children\u2019s. He was present in every aspect of the word,\u201d she told the Australian Administrative Review Tribunal, which looked at the man\u2019s case. <\/p>\n

The man also wrote to the tribunal, saying he considered his step-children, aged 6 to 18, \u201cas if they were my biological children\u201d. <\/p>\n

Before he was imprisoned, he worked from home and was their \u201cstay-at-home dad\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe man has been shut out of Australia under Section 501 of the Australian Migration Act.<\/p>\n

In his written statement, the man, whose name was redacted from the tribunal decision, said he felt guilty about his behaviour towards his wife and previous partners, and was committed to changing his ways.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that apologies aren\u2019t enough, and I need to ensure that I do not reoffend,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have stopped drinking alcohol on a regular basis after I was arrested in February 2024. <\/p>\n

\u201cI realise that I have inflicted harm on my past partners and now [my wife] as well as our children, through [my] behaviour.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would previously lash out when I felt disrespected, and previously thought I had a right to respond with aggression or hostility. <\/p>\n

\u201cI now understand that these beliefs were wrong and harmful and led to my offending. The rehabilitation programmes I have participated in have challenged and helped reshape my thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Man moved to Australia in 2012<\/p>\n

According to the tribunal\u2019s decision, the man, 37, moved to Australia in 2012. <\/p>\n

He already had a New Zealand criminal record, which included two family violence counts of \u201cmale assaults female\u201d and wilful damage in a family violence context. He also had convictions for driving offences and fighting in a public place.<\/p>\n

He received fines and community work for his New Zealand offences.<\/p>\n

In Australia, he clocked up 15 convictions for five offending incidents between December 2020 and March 2024.<\/p>\n

The charges included six breaches of domestic violence orders, four bail breaches, common assault in a domestic violence context, three wilful damage convictions, also involving domestic violence, and finally an assault against his wife, causing actual bodily harm.<\/p>\n

He was sentenced to imprisonment for 27 months in March 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe applicant\u2019s domestically violent conduct has been persistently abhorrent,\u201d review tribunal member Theodore Tavoularis said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has physically and psychologically harmed victims. He has caused them material harm by wilfully damaging their property while so offending. <\/p>\n

\u201cHis conduct has consumed more than its fair share of the community\u2019s policing, judicial sentencing and custodial resources,\u201d Tavoularis said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy finding will be that if the applicant were to reoffend, the resulting harm would range from psychological, physical and financial harm. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not beyond the realms of possibility for such conduct to result in a catastrophic outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tavoularis found that the man\u2019s conduct weighed very heavily against restoring his visa to be in Australia. <\/p>\n

Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME\u2019s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke\u2019s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of frontline experience as a probation officer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But he cannot because his visa was revoked under Section 501 of the Australian Migration Act while he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[108480,158792,85,2068,2109,1861,78,194,111,43,139,69,1527,61,13118,102],"class_list":["post-284991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-108480","tag-abhorrent","tag-australia","tag-cant","tag-family","tag-history","tag-in","tag-kiwi","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-return","tag-to","tag-violence","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}