Footage appeared to show Thompson moving around independently, including climbing several flights of stairs while walking his dog. <\/p>\n
“I haven’t made any recovery,” he told reporters, adding that a recent holiday to the Philippines where video appeared to show him drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes had only been possible in a wheelchair. <\/p>\n
Australian Federal MP Andrew Wallace, whose electorate includes part of the Sunshine Coast, said he had raised concerns in parliament about reports the accused offender was living in the community. <\/p>\n
“The allegations against this individual are extremely serious and involve multiple alleged child victims over many years,” Wallace said. <\/p>\n
“Families in our community are asking a very simple question: how was this allowed to happen?<\/p>\n
“How was this person able to enter Australia in the first place? Was the Department of Home Affairs aware of these allegations? Were appropriate character checks undertaken?<\/p>\n
“The minister already has powers under the Migration Act to act on character grounds. Those powers should be used.”<\/p>\n
Wallace called on the Department of Home Affairs to cancel Thompson’s visa, saying he should be removed from Australia. <\/p>\n
“Community safety must always come first,” he said. <\/p>\n
Under Australian law, visas can be cancelled if a non-citizen is considered a potential risk to the health or safety of the community.<\/p>\n
Thompson was a well-known face on New Zealand televisions in the 1990s, promoting his carpet company Ron’s Discount Carpets. <\/p>\n
![\"Thompson](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/thompson-appears-in-a-tv-commercial-for-rons-discount-carpet-PLM32JZYJZFQVLMSEKR667KA2U.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Thompson appears in a TV commercial for Ron’s Discount Carpets (Source: Nine)<\/p>\n
He was charged with 18 counts of sexual offending against six alleged victims, four girls and two boys, between 1981 and 2002. The charges included indecent assault and rape, A Current Affair reported.<\/p>\n
A further six victims came forward after a suppression order was lifted in the Blenheim District Court in 2024. <\/p>\n
Thompson has vehemently denied the allegations. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Australian MP is calling for a New Zealand man accused of multiple sex offences to be deported…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[85,67,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-328417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-australia","tag-crime-and-justice","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328417","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=328417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}