Robert Michael Main: Labor’s visa direction tested as double murderer gets greenlight to stay in Australia

A double murderer has been spared deportation after it was determined he had reformed and no longer posed a risk to the community in one of the first tests of Labor’s revised ministerial directions on migration and visas.

In June 2024, then-immigration minister Andrew Giles signed Direction 110 ordering that the protection of the Australian community be given greater weight in visa decisions.

It came after a string of decisions by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal to overturn visa cancellations based on criminals’ “ties to the community” resulted in a firestorm for the Government, with the Coalition repeatedly calling for Mr Giles to be sacked.

Now, the tribunal has overturned a move to cancel the visa of US-born Robert Michael Main who killed a man during an armed robbery at a drug dealer’s house in 1983 and then, while remanded in custody, was involved in the death of another man who died from a lethal dose of pure heroin.

Tribunal deputy president ­Damien O’Donovan said the decision to allow Main to stay in Australia was “a difficult one”.

“The offences which the applicant has committed are so serious that in many contexts they would in and of themselves justify cancellation of the visa,” he said.

“In the current circumstances I accept that the applicant has committed the most serious offence – twice. I accept that the second offence was accompanied by many aggravating circumstances. Those facts alone provide a powerful reason for removing the applicant from Australia permanently.

“However. . .I consider the risk of him committing any further offence to be extremely low.”

Despite current Immigration Minister Tony Burke’s lawyers arguing Main’s offences signifie “fundamental character concerns”, Mr O’Donovan said there was strong evidence that Main had reformed and made positive contributions to his community by caring for others and visa cancellation was not appropriate.

“Returning the applicant to the US will provide no safety benefit to the broader Australian community, but is likely to impose terrible hardships on the applicant and his relatives and supporters.

“In those circumstances, I am satisfied that the preferable exercise of the discretion is to decide not to cancel the applicant’s visa.”

Main was born in California in 1955 and moved to Australia when he was 12 but never became an Australian citizen. After becoming involved in petty crime during his teenage years, he became a heroin and cocaine user.

He was handed life sentences for two counts of murder and one count of assault with intent to rob/use corporal violence and was never expected to be released back into the community.

Changes to NSW’s sentencing laws, however, allowed him to be released in June 2016. His visa was cancelled in February 2020, although he wasn’t taken into detention until May 2022.

On May 11, 2022, the Federal Court quashed the visa cancellation decision and Main was once again released into the community.

Then, on September 3, 2024, his visa was cancelled again, this time on the basis that he did not pass the character test and on November 2022 he was once again taking into detention.

The recent decision to overturn his detention came after he applied for a review by the tribunal.