Political donations may have helped an illegal migrant with convictions linked to the Calabrian mafia overturn a deportation order, a media report alleges.
A joint Fairfax-ABC investigation into the mafia's links to Australian politics aired on the ABC's Four Corners program on Monday.
It said then immigration minister Philip Ruddock's 1996 order to deport illegal migrant Francesco "Frank" Madafferi was overturned by his replacement, Amanda Vanstone, in 2005 despite Madafferi's convictions for violent and mafia-related offences in Calabria.
Madafferi married an Australian woman but the program alleges he was suspected of significant criminal dealings following his arrival in Australia in 1989.
The program said that when the Madafferi family failed in court to overturn the deportation, Frank's brother Antonio (Tony) used businessmen connected with the Liberal Party's Millennium Forum fundraising group as part of a political lobbying campaign.
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
It said NSW Liberal senator Marise Payne, Victorian MP Russell Broadbent and NSW MP Bruce Billson were lobbied.
All three in turn approached Ms Vanstone about the Madafferi case, the program said.
Tony Madafferi arranged a political fundraiser in Melbourne attended by all three where Ms Vanstone was guest speaker and Mr Madafferi personally donated $15,000 to the Millennium Forum, the program alleged.
In November 2005, Ms Vanstone overturned the deportation.
Ms Vanstone and the three MPs declined to comment to Four Corners, but said their intervention was based on humanitarian concerns about the deportation's impact on the Madafferi family.
