Australia deports 12 New Zealanders under new immigration rules

Australia's Defense Minster (DM) Peter Dutton says his government has deported 12 New Zealand expatriates under new laws that target foreign criminals.

The DM announced the figure on Sydney radio on Thursday, and said the 12 deportees had failed the "character test" and weren't welcome on "our soil".

A recent amendment of Australia's Migration Act, which came into effect late last year, allows the Federal government to mandatorily cancel the visas of foreigners who have spent more than one year in jail, or been convicted of sexual offenses against children.

Dutton said the Australian government had struck a deal by New Zealand Prime Minister John Key to release the 12 detainees, on the condition that they permanently relocate back across the Tasman sea.

"We've done a lot of work with the Key government and we have put in place an arrangement where we can return them," Dutton told Sydney radio, while in Jakarta attending the Indonesia Australia Business Week, on Thursday.

However, Fairfax Media reported on Thursday that the group of 12 volunteered to return home after being held at Australia's main detention centre on Christmas Island.

The latest data from Australia's Immigration Department states 184 New Zealanders have been placed in detention centers across the country under the Act, awaiting deportation. A further 1,000 Kiwis could be detained and subsequently deported if the policy remains unchanged.

Last month, Key confronted his Australian counterpart Malcolm Turnbull on the questionable treatment of his fellow Kiwi citizens during Turnbull's first overseas tour since rising to the top job in September. Endit