SERBS HIM RIGHT

It’s Friday. I might as well end the week on the theme that has run through this week on 3AW. I am a tough, cruel man with ice in my veins and a heartless bastard.

That was over the pending hanging of an Australian heroin smuggler in Singapore. There is another issue today, which I have mentioned briefly before and it has been all over the TV and radio news in the past 24 hours.

It’s the case of Robert Jovicic. He has been deported to Serbia and, in protest, is sleeping in the cold outside the Australian Embassy in Belgrade. He says he will die there. The Serbians don’t want him him. Won’t recognise him and won’t give him benefits.

Some background: Jovicic’s parents are Serbian but he was born in Paris. The family brought him to Australia when he was two years old. He lived here for 36 years before the Federal Government revoked his visa and deported him on the grounds that he was not of good character. And that part is true. He was a serial burglar and had done time for his crimes. He was NOT an Australian citizen and so the Immigration Department legally deported him.

Whether he should have been sent to Serbia or to France where he was born is another issue.

His brother and sister, who, both live in Australia, have understandably, questioned the Immigration Department’s decision. But I do not agree with brother Dragan Jovicic who says Robert “is really a good bloke”. No he’s not. He is a crook. He is a thief. He was a burglar.

I have said many times that you can’t deport people who are Australian citizens unless they lied on their immigration papers. But if they are not Australian citizens and they commit crimes in our country then they should serve their time in jail and then be kicked out of the country. Robert Jovicic falls into that category no matter how hard he finds things now.

And if he is broke and if he is cold and if he is hungry in Belgrade – then let his own family help him out. He is a crook who is not the Australian Government or the Australian taxpayers problem.

Heartless bastard Hinch speaks again.

Friday, November, 25, 2005

©Copyright Derryn Hinch 2005