Between 1981 and 2017 he was imprisoned on five occasions, the last in Queensland, and is now in immigration detention in Western Australia. In 1999, Pallas put a gun to a police officer’s head and tried to drown the officer. That year he was imprisoned until July 2012. In early 2017, while Pallas was in prison in Queensland, the then-department of Immigration and Border Protection notified Pallas that his visa was being cancelled because of his criminal record. Pallas appealed to the department for a review, arguing he “didn’t know anything about” his birth country, and had lived almost his entire life in Australia. “[I] feel it would be wrong to be sent away from my family, and to be made to live alone in a foreign country,” he said.

“This country is all I have known as a home, and although I have struggled with the law at times, I feel I am at the age now where my responsibility to my family comes first, and I intend to do only the right thing by them, myself, and the community in the future.” Pallas said he was close to his extensive family in Australia, including six children, three grandchildren, five stepchildren, his parents and two brothers. He asked the Home Affairs Minister to show leniency to his case, as being deported would mean he would never see his parents again, “not even for their funerals”, and place his family under significant hardship. “We all have a close family unit and have had for 40 years, and to split this family now would be so sad and final as I would never get to see them again,” Pallas wrote. He also argued he had recently started a business to support his family and was seeking to live a quiet life in the community and be a good father figure to his minor stepchildren.

The Home Affairs Minister decided to uphold the original decision, saying he was “not satisfied Mr Pallas passes the character test”, despite the impacts on Pallas’ family, the longevity of his time in Australia, and his positive contributions to the community. Pallas appealed against the decision in the federal court, but Justice Berna Collier dismissed his appeal on April 16. Justice Collier said she considered the nature of his offending “very serious”, including the 1999 incident in which he pointed a pistol at a police officer. While struggling, the officer was shot in the leg and Pallas forced his head underwater, attacked him with a piece of wood or rock, and left him injured in the creek. In other instances, Pallas was sentenced for receiving tainted property, unlawful possession of weapons, and possessing explosives.

“Mr Pallas has received many sentences of imprisonment, with a number of them being for 12 months or more, up to a maximum of 13 years,” Justice Collier said. While in immigration detention, Pallas’ case was delayed after he asked for an extension due to being “beaten in the Christmas Island Detention Centre” in May 2018 and was flown to Perth for treatment. He was later transferred to the Perth Immigration Detention Centre. A final attempt to receive pro bono legal assistance with his appeal was unsuccessful and Justice Collier gave orders to dismiss his application. “In reaching my decision … I concluded that Mr Pallas represents an unacceptable risk of harm to the Australian community and that the protection of the Australian community outweighed the best interests of his son, minor stepsons and grandchildren,” Justice Collier concluded.

“I am satisfied that the Minister had due regard to the interests of Mr Pallas’ minor children and other family members and to the extent required, there was no absence of procedural fairness in the reasoning process of the Minister.”