Australia may have begun as a convict colony, however the Australia Federal Government is now in the process of mass deportation of non-Australian citizens criminals convicted of serious crimes. Section 501 of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) (“the Act”) grants the DIBP the powers to undertake the cancellation of visas (permanent or otherwise) where the visa holder has been convicted of serious criminal offences.

In a freedom of information log on the Department of Immigration and Border Protection’s website for the 2014-2015 financial year, it shows that the DIBP has cancelled 580 visas on character grounds, including the following:

Top 5 offences by numbers	Number of offences in the 2014-2015 year
Other Violent Offence	106
Assault	97
Other Non-Violent Offence	89
Drug Related Offences	60
Theft	49

Contrary to what most people may think, the country with the most cancellations happens to be our closest neighbour, New Zealand, whilst we are now also sending criminals back to the motherland of the United Kingdom:

Country	Number of cancelled visas in the 2014-2015 year
New Zealand	339
United Kingdom	64
Sudan	16
Vietnam	14
Fiji	10

You can see more information on this here.