Citizen to go

The Dominion Post says that John Burrett, the notorious "bunker-in-the-bush" kidnap plotter, is to be deported.

Immigration Minister Paul Swain—whose Rimutaka electorate includes where the bunker was built—personally signed Burrett's deportation order.

Permanent removal of a criminal through deportation has the one big advantage of the death penalty, without the killing. But, to my mind, there's a problem - apparently, John Burrett is a New Zealand citizen.

Authorities are now free to deport the British-born New Zealand citizen when he becomes eligible for parole in about two years.

So, either the press have it wrong, or the government is now deporting its own citizens.

No surprise, really. This government also

• locks people up without trial
• regards people as guilty until proven innocent
• confiscates land and denies land-owners due process

Fortunately, Burrett holds dual citizenship, so there's some place he can go. If he didn't, there would be nowhere to deport him to, and the government would stand in contravention of the 1954 United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, to which we are signatories, and the 1961 Convention that seeks to reduce the incidence of stateless persons.

So, are there two kinds of New Zealand citizenship? Exactly how bad do you have to be to risk having your citizenship revoked? Damn it, I'm going to have to write to Paul Swain...