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Richmond star Dustin Martin has urged the Federal Government to allow his deported father to return to Australia because "he hadn't done anything wrong"
In April last year, Shane Martin was deported to New Zealand for his alleged links to outlawed motorcycle gang, the Rebels, a link Dustin Martin confirmed in a television interview on Monday nigfht.
"I am in a footy club, he is in a bikie club," Martin has told Channel Nine's A Current Affair, adding his father was no longer part of the gang.
"I wake up every day hoping to get a phone call from dad, saying 'just hold on, I am coming back'," he said.
"Just because he was in a club doesn't mean he has done anything wrong.
"I am in a footy club, he is in a bikie club, they join, get together and go for rides."
Dustin Martin was born in Victoria but his father remains a citizen of New Zealand. Speaking from there, Shane told ACA not many parents had famous sons.
"Now I sit on the other side of another country, and I can't even enjoy that," he said.
"If I committed a murder, had domestic violence or had anything to do with a threat to Australia, as they say, I could wear it.
"But I have got no charges, nothing. That's pretty hard to swallow."
Dustin Martin, a skilful midfielder who finished third in the AFL's Brownlow Medal count last year, also spoke out about missing out on his dad's support. He has had his own troubles, apologising last year for threatening to stab a restaurant patron with a chopstick after she told a drunken Martin to behave at a Melbourne eatery.
"You see the other guys with their parents. I don't have my dad there. It is pretty sad. If he was a criminal, I would cop it," Martin said.
"Taking him away for association is no reason for breaking up the family.
"I think it is pretty stupid."
According to A Current Affair Shane Martin had consented to revealing his Australian criminal record, which the show reported dated to 1990, soon after his arrival from NZ.
It includes, the show reported, unlawful assault, burglary, armed with an intent, criminal damage and resisting police. He was ordered to carry out 250 hours of community work.
Over the next six years, Shane Martin was reportedly convicted and fined four times for possessing a restricted substance and once for possessing a drug of dependence.
In 2004, according to ACA, he received a two-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months for aiding and abetting in the trafficking of ecstasy.
His last brush with the law was reportedly in January 2004, when he was convicted and fined for possessing a drug of dependence, and possessing ecstasy and cannabis.
