Senator Lidia Thorpe has thrown her support behind former partner Dean Martin, the uncle of AFL footballer Dustin Martin, after the bikie’s visa was cancelled by the federal government.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil tore up Martin’s visa on character grounds, this masthead reported yesterday.
Former Rebels’ bikie boss Dean Martin.Credit: Jesse Marlow
Martin, a former president of the Rebels outlaw motorcycle gang, was still in Australia on Tuesday night, but will be removed if he does not agree to leave voluntarily.
Thorpe, who briefly dated Martin in 2021, said he should not be deported because the law should protect Indigenous people from being kicked out of Australia.
“Mr Martin has proof, support and recognition that he is Aboriginal from Elders and community in lutruwita Tasmania,” she said in a statement.
“We’ve already seen the High Court rule in 2020 that the Commonwealth lacks constitutional power to deport First Peoples under the Migration Act. The 2020 ruling reflected the Mabo decision, which recognised that First Peoples connection to this country has never been severed.
Dean Martin and Lidia Thorpe at a Melbourne market in 2022.Credit: Facebook
“My question is, why does the government now think they can go against the law and deport First Peoples?”
Martin is one of more than 20 members of the CFMEU with bikie links whom the union stood aside in Victoria last week following a joint investigation into the construction union by this masthead, The Australian Financial Review and 60 Minutes.
He has lived in Australia for three decades and was operating as a CFMEU delegate at Indigenous labour hire firm A2B.
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Martin briefly dated Thorpe when she was a member of the joint parliamentary law enforcement committee in 2021. When details of the relationship emerged in October 2022, it triggered her resignation as Greens deputy Senate leader.
The parliamentary committee had received confidential briefings in the past about bikie gangs and organised crime, prompting concerns about a potential conflict of interest.
But a subsequent inquiry found that, while Thorpe should have disclosed the relationship, she did not receive any relevant sensitive information and therefore should not be held in contempt.
Shane Martin, Dean’s brother and Dustin’s father, was deported to New Zealand in 2018. He tried to return several times, including once in 2020 when he claimed Indigenous heritage allowed him to stay. However, he ultimately failed and died in New Zealand in 2021.
The case highlighted the New Zealand government’s concerns about its citizens who had little relationship with their home country being deported despite their longstanding connections to Australia.
With Lachlan Abbott