A 2.1-metre (almost 7 feet) tall Kiwi is being deported from Australia because his size makes him an "unacceptable threat to the national interest".



Hayden Harlem Tewao, 26, who stands 2.1m tall and weighs 200kg, had his Australian visa cancelled after he committed an armed robbery in 2010.



Tewao, who is known as "Tiny", appealed to the Australian Administrative Appeals Board which overturned the decision to deport him back to New Zealand saying he had a low risk of re-offending and had shown remorse for his crime.



However, Immigration Minister Chris Bowen used his ministerial powers to over-ride the decision citing Tewao's "exceptionally large" stature as being a risk factor that made it not in the national interest for him to remain.



The Federal Court of Australia has confirmed the minister's decision.



Tewao was described by the Appeals Board as a "gentle" giant who paints and listens to opera.



"He is a huge man, 26 years old, with shoulders like buttresses and legs like pylons. His hands, as fists, resemble demolition balls."



His family was "enmeshed" in gang culture for which he was valuable due to his size, the board said.



"Yet Mr Tewao, or 'Tiny' as he is known, seems for all his mountainous bulk a gentle man.



"He stands as if in apology for the space he takes up. His head is often bowed as he holds his massive hands clasped loosely in front of him. His speech is tentative and his voice soft. He is said to be mildly intellectually disabled, but his words occasionally catch his thoughts and form a comment so insightful or a connection so nimble that one must play the words over to be sure they were his."



The board was obviously impressed with him, waxing lyrical that: "when he recedes into the chasm between thought and vocabulary he grinds to a frustrated and resigned halt".



"One wonders what it must be like to continually face the fearful response of those he meets and to keep that massive piece of human machinery running every day. It is sometimes hard to see the person inhabiting it and one imagines a smaller, more articulate man struggling to break out from inside the bulk, throwing bright glimpses of himself out to the world."



The board was also impressed by his cultural side.



Tewao paints on a daily basis and has a love of opera that he discovered on YouTube.



"Though he doesn't understand the words he feels it deeply. Talking about it brought a luminous smile to his face, but embarrassed him profoundly. He said 'But I'm like - like, I'm an Islander, you know. An Islander listening to opera, you know, that's not - it's like one out of a million'."



Bowen was not impressed though, saying the brutality of the crime and Tewao's role as an enforcer made any future offending "potentially very serious".



Tewao and his cousin robbed a man who had sold them cannabis after a day of drinking, smoking marijuana and taking ecstasy.



During the robbery, Tewao punched and "battered" the man breaking his nose and several bones in his face.

He was sentenced to three years and three months in prison with a non-parole period of 16 months and his visa cancelled.



Tewao's lawyer argued that his size should not be held against him but the Federal Court ruled that Tewao's size was "patently not irrelevant".



"It is plain that what the Minister had in mind when he referred to Mr Tewao's size was that it played a role in the commission of the offence and contributed to the brutality of the attack. No doubt that is why he felt that a low-moderate risk of reoffending was too high a risk to take in this case."