Australia New Zealand MoU not good enough – SST Youth Advocate

4 March 2015

The new Australia and New Zealand trans-Tasman agreement to share information on criminals being deported doesn’t go far enough says SST Youth Advocate.

“This does not go far enough. With the secrecy of criminals past always being non- accounted for and the so called ‘criminals rights’ this new deal will not help protect victims,” says Jess McVicar.

“When a criminal is being deported, they should be automatically listed on a publicly available criminal database, with their offence/offences listed.”

“They should then have to have supervision at least until they prove they are not a threat to public safety.”

“They should also be on strict parole conditions until it is proven they are remorseful and will not reoffend.”

“Just because they committed their crime in another country, and maybe have done some time in prison for this crime does not mean they will not re-offend when back in their home country.”

Jess said that filling out a criminal declaration form for employment is not going to stop them reoffending.

“We are giving criminals far too many rights and forgetting about the victims. When are we going to stop protecting these criminals and start protecting public?”

Tina Bayliss has been campaigning for these changes to happen. Tina is the mother of Jade Bayliss who was murdered in 2011 by Jeremy McLaughlin, a kiwi who had been committed of manslaughter in Australia and then deported to New Zealand where he went onto murder Jade.

Jess said McLaughlin had made a criminal declaration for employment but that did not stop the awful crime from happening.

“What Tina is asking is perfectly sensible. When will we get the attention of the government for these changes?”

Tina Bayliss has a petition circulating for these changes with already around 40,000 signatures and Jess believes that is voice enough for the Govt to listen.

Help Tina in her fight and sign the petition, maybe just maybe they will start to listen.

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