5 Jan 2014

Bar Assn against deportation of criminal to NZ

7:53 am on 5 January 2014

The Criminal Bar Association says Australia should not be deporting a New Zealand-born man who has lived there since childhood.

Marouna Williams, 24, left New Zealand when he was two and has lived in Australia since he was nine.

He has convictions in Australia for unprovoked attacks on train passengers including one that left a man in a coma for months.

A tribunal has upheld a decision to deport him to New Zealand, saying he poses too great a risk to Australian citizens.

But Criminal Bar Association president Tony Bouchier says Australia should be responsible for the people it produces.

He says people who are torn from their families by deportation have a much lesser chance of rehabilitation.