Kids could keep NZ criminal in Australia

A Samoan-born New Zealand criminal is getting another chance to avoid being deported from Australia.

The High Court on Wednesday ruled the Administrative Appeals Tribunal failed to properly consider fresh information in his case - that as well as three children by his partner, he had another two with another woman.

Peter Uelese, 29, apparently neglected to mention the younger pair, aged four and five, whose existence only emerged during evidence to the tribunal by his partner Peta Fatai, mother of his three older children.

She said they had been separated, and during that period he fathered a further two children to another woman.

Uelese moved to Australia in 1998, and as a New Zealand citizen is permitted to remain indefinitely.

During his time in Australia, he notched up a substantial criminal record with a series of jail terms, most recently a three-year sentence for recklessly causing grievous bodily harm.

When that term ended in September 2012, his visa was cancelled with the intention of returning him to New Zealand under good character provisions of immigration law.

The tribunal is obliged to consider the best interests of any minor children who would be affected by cancellation of a person's visa.

High Court judges unanimously ruled the tribunal hadn't properly considered that he had five not just three children.

His case now goes back to the tribunal for reconsideration.