- Dustin Martin’s uncle Dean to be deported to New Zealand
- He is a former Rebels biker boss and once dated Lidia Thorpe.
- READ MORE: Firebrand senator quits Greens
Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe says the government made a mistake with the pending deportation of former biker boss Dean Martin, whom she briefly dated.
Senator Thorpe said Martin, who was arrested on Monday and is facing deportation to New Zealand after his visa was cancelled on character grounds, cannot be removed from the country because he is Indigenous.
Mr Martin is a shop steward for the embattled CFMEU party and former national president of the Rebels motorcycle gang. He is also the uncle of Richmond AFL legend Dustin Martin.
Martin is being held by the Australian Border Force in an immigration detention centre after Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil personally cancelled his visa.
Senator Thorpe said that while she had not spoken to Martin, she believed “the government had made a mistake with this decision”.
“Mr Martin has evidence, support and recognition that he is Aboriginal from the elders and community of Lutruwita, Tasmania,” he said.
‘We have already seen the High Court’s ruling in 2020 that the Commonwealth lacks the constitutional power to deport First Peoples under the Migration Act.
‘The 2020 ruling reflected the Mabo decision, which recognised that the First Peoples’ connection to this country has never been severed.’
Lidia Thorpe dated Dean Martin, former president of the Rebels Victoria chapter, after meeting through the group ‘Blak activism’. The Home Office revoked Martin’s visa this week
Martin resigned as president of the Rebels Victoria chapter in 2018 after his brother, Dustin Martin’s father Shane, was deported to New Zealand over his links to biking.
Senator Thorpe said First Nations people could not be classified as “aliens” and deported because that was incompatible with their connection to country “recognized by common law.”
‘My question is, why does the government now think it can go against the law and deport First Nations?’
The Home Department said it could not comment on individual cases.
Martin’s brother Shane, also a former senior Rebels member, was deported to New Zealand in 2018.
Shane died three years later in Auckland.
Senator Thorpe previously said she had “briefly dated” Martin in 2021 while he was part of a joint parliamentary law enforcement committee that received confidential information about organised crime and bikie gangs.
This led to her resigning from a leadership position in the Green Party as a result of the undisclosed relationship.
Senator Thorpe (pictured in May this year) said the government had “made a mistake” in cancelling Martin’s visa because he is Indigenous.
Martin is the uncle of Richmond Tigers star Dustin Martin (pictured on the pitch against the Brisbane Lions)
Senator Thorpe, who later left the Greens and became an independent, then issued a statement accepting she had “made mistakes”.
“I will now reflect on this and focus on my important work, especially in advocating for First Nations peoples,” he said.
Martin has lived in the country for three decades and was associated with the Rebels motorcycle gang for 25 years until 2018.
He has no criminal record, but was apparently a person of interest in police investigations into the organization.
Since leaving the Rebels, he has been working as a CFMEU delegate at the indigenous labour recruitment company A2B.
The state governments of Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, backed by the federal government, have pledged to place CFMEU chapters in their regions under external administration in an effort to clean up the union.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Senator Thorpe’s office for further comment.
