Australia deports NZ sex offender

Australia is deporting a New Zealand man jailed for sexually abusing his daughter.

The 48-year-old man, who has name suppression, moved to Australia in 1985.

In 2008, he pleaded guilty to sexually abusing his daughter and has been serving an 8.5-year prison sentence, with a non parole period of 5.5 years.

He is being deported after the Administrative Appeals Tribunal of Australia in Melbourne upheld a decision to cancel his visa in a judgment released this week.

The victim came to live with him when she was 15 and the offending took place between 2000 and 2002.

At one stage the girl became pregnant with her father's child and had an abortion, after which he provided her with contraception.

The sentencing judge said his offending took place against a vulnerable member of his family, "who required parenting, not sexual exploitation".

The man was remorseful and had completed drug and alcohol programmes.

A psychologist assessed his risk of sexual re-offending as low.

The man's siblings, mother and younger daughter live in Australia. He has a fiancee, a New Zealander who lives in Australia, who he began a relationship with while in prison.

He is particularly worried about leaving his younger daughter, who is 19 and pregnant.

The man also said he had been involved in a gang in his late teens while in New Zealand and he feared for his life if he returned.

However, the tribunal noted he had returned to New Zealand 11 times without issue.

It said his offending was very serious.

"The close and extended family support for him (expressed in numerous statements to the department) barely mentions the offences and seems to pay little regard to the scope and nature of the offences.

"This suggests that the family has little insight into his offending, particularly as it involved his own daughter."

The offences occurred at a time when he was vulnerable and facing financial and other difficulties, it said.

"The prospects of him facing similar problems when released remain a possibility ... while the risk of re-offending is relatively low, it remains real and not insignificant."