His kids may be better off without him?

The Herald reports:

A New Zealand-born father of five with a criminal history spanning 23 years in Australia has failed in a last-ditch bid to remain there.

The man, who was sent to Australia to live with an aunt after being physically abused as a teen, pleaded with authorities to let him stay in the same country as his children.

He said he wanted to be a father to his kids and be there for them when they needed him.

“I always said I would never disown my kids like my dad did with me.”

On the face of it, this is very laudable. Kids do much better if they grow up with both parents.

The man was sent to Australia when he was 15 after suffering physical abuse from his father and stepfather. He has never been back to New Zealand.

His criminal offending began when he was 18 and has continued almost yearly since.

While characterised by property and dishonesty-related crimes, numerous traffic offences and breaches of court-imposed orders, his list of previous offences also includes some that resulted in extended prison terms.

He was jailed for two years and seven months in 2006 for a grievous bodily harm charge, in which he fractured a man’s eye socket.

In 2008, he received a three-year prison term for his part in a phony robbery set up to steal about $40,000 from his employer.

He was warned by immigration officials in 2010 that his visa was in jeopardy but continued to offend regardless.

So his entire adult life has been crime, and he was warned explicitly 12 years ago he might be deported if he continued. He had kids then, so if he really wanted to be in their lives he could have stopped.

In 2015 and 2020, he was subject to domestic violence orders after incidents involving his current partner – the mother of his three youngest children, some of whom were present as he issued derogatory taunts, damaged and destroyed property.

If his partner took out domestic violence protection orders against him, then it is quite possible his kids are safer without him around.

It was accepted the man had a parental role in the lives of his three youngest children, but the Tribunal was concerned about how genuine the man’s evidence about his children was.

He made similar claims about his older children to the Department of Home Affairs in 2010 but he now had little if any contact with them.

Not entirely surprising.