Labour Dept abused court procedure—judge

Press, 7 August 1989, Page 32

Labour Dept abused court procedure—judge

PA Auckland The Labour Department abused court procedures in its efforts to deport an Australian-born man, an Auckland District Court judge has ruled. Judge Deobhakta has dismissed the department’s application for a removal warrant against Paul Anthony Blair, aged 38, who is an organiser with the Auckland Unemployed Workers’ Union. The decision follows a three-year legal fight since the department gained a District Court order to deport Blair in 1986, under the nowrepealed 1964 Immigration Act. The department claimed Blair ' was a prohibited immigrant because he had been sen-

tenced to five years’ jail for robbery and assault in Sydney in 1984. He was released after serving 15 months and came to New Zealand.

Blair appealed against the deportation order in the High Court, then the Court of Appeal, which sent the case back to the District Court for another hearing. When the case came up in the District Court last September, the department offered no defence and it was dismissed.

The department then’ decided to use the new Immigration Act 1987 and applied for a removal warrant. After a District Court hearing in Auckland in April, Judge Deobhakta released a written deci-

sion refusing the warrant.

“I am of the view that the whole of the history of this matter, coupled with the change of the nature of the proceedings, amounts to an abuse of process and this court intends to exercise its power to prevent it by dismissing the application,” he said.

Blair said he was delighted with the decision.

“I have a son and a daughter here in New Zealand and now I can get on with the business of making their future as, good as I can.” The department’s regional solicitor, Mr Richard Henshaw, said it was closely considering the decision but would not comment further.