Kiwi-born Aaron Graham was arrested by Australian immigration officials in June and could be deported to New Zealand.

Up to a 1000 criminals – including killers, sex offenders, drug dealers and outlaw bikies – will be dumped on New Zealand's doorstep in the next five years.

The Government is scrambling to keep New Zealanders safe after recent law changes in Australia opened the way for the deportation of Kiwis who have committed crimes across the ditch.

Many of the criminals have tenuous links to New Zealand after living in Australia for years.

Among those expected to be deported are dozens of gang members, sparking concerns new outlaw motorcycle clubs could be established here alongside international rivals including the Bandidos and the Rebels.

The Government says it is working quickly to improve trans-Tasman information sharing. New legislation is being drafted that will allow for supervision of criminals who are sent home.

Under changes to the Australian Migration Act in December, Australian officials have the power to cancel the visas of suspected or convicted criminals, particularly those sentenced to more 12 months' jail or more, or found guilty of sex offences.

According to police, 119 people have been deported to New Zealand from Australia so far this year – more than four times the number sent home for the same period 12 months earlier.

In the four years to June 30, New Zealand sent 14 people in the other direction.

Figures provided by the Australian Department of Immigration and Border Protection reveal that since the law change 372 New Zealanders' visas have been cancelled. Nearly half of them are sitting in immigration centres in Australia awaiting deportation.

Police sources say up to 1000 criminals could be sent back to New Zealand in the next five years.

Reports across the Tasman suggest dozens of bikies have been nominated as possible candidates for deportation. Many of them are believed to be New Zealand citizens who are aligned with gangs like the Comancheros.

A founding member of the Rebels in Tasmania, Kiwi-born Aaron Joe Thomas Graham, was arrested by immigration officers in Hobart in June and is among those awaiting deportation. He has a string of convictions for violent assaults.

Detective Superintendent Virginia Le Bas, national manager of organised crime, said police were aware of several gang members among those returning to New Zealand. Some of them were from groups that did not exist in New Zealand, Le Bas said.

"There's the risk that they will come back here and set up a chapter [of the gang] and establish within this country."

Le Bas said it was key that police had access to information about those who were being deported.

"If we don't know who they are we can't be monitoring them and that's what we want to be doing," she said.

There has been a push to improve monitoring of criminals deported from Australia to New Zealand since the murder of Christchurch schoolgirl Jade Bayliss in November 2011.

The 13-year-old was strangled in her home by her mother's ex-boyfriend Jeremy McLaughlin – a man who had spent time in jail for the killing of a teenager in Australia before he was deported in 2001.

Convicted murderer Michael Heron was deported from Australia late last year and is understood to be living in Christchurch.

Heron, 43, was jailed in Australia in 1996 after stabbing a man to death in a bar fight. He was sentenced to a minimum of 14 years' jail and had extra terms added for repeated acts of violence in prison.

Authorities warned he could kill again.

A report prepared for Justice Minister Amy Adams earlier this year noted there was no reliable system of monitoring deported offenders or obtaining reliable information on their risk before they returned.

If police were informed an offender was being deported they would meet them upon arrival at the airport and request a DNA sample and fingerprints, but that was voluntary.

This week Adams said officials had worked at "some pace" in recent months to get better systems in place to protect the public.

"I recognise [the system] at the moment this is not nearly robust enough for those people deported back to New Zealand and I want to change that."

Last month, Adams announced the creation of a new register that would list people who had been, or were about to be, sent back to New Zealand after being convicted of a crime.

Before the end of the year, she hopes to have legislation before Parliament that would see monitoring and conditions imposed on criminals returning to New Zealand similar to those that would have applied had their sentence been served here.

A system for sharing information about offenders with Australia is also being developed.

"In the meantime I'm comfortable police have adequate processes to deal with those that are arriving now and over the next few months," Adams said.