Following the governments swift action to deport hundreds of non-citizens with a ‘substantial’ criminal record, media reports say the ‘outlaw bikie gang members are rushing to file citizenship to avoid being deported.”

It is estimated that some 400 people linked to organised crime on the federal government’s National Criminal Threat Database are non-citizens, according to a report in the Daily Telegraph. DIBP is in the process of cross-referencing people on such databases to determine if they could be deported.

The government has already cancelled the visas of over 500 foreigners, since July last year. The cancellations have given little or no regard to the length of time they spent in Australia nor the effect of the cancellation on their Australian born partner and children. All it seems to take for the minister to make the call to deport them is if they had been sentenced to a year in jail or were the subject of criminal intelligence suggesting they were a threat to the community.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said in just June he cancelled the visas of 57 criminals and had them removed from Australia or prevented them from returning to Australia.

DIBP figures revealed that New Zealanders make up more than half of the foreigners who have had their visas cancelled. This is followed by citizens of the United Kingdom.

When asked about the rise in citizenship applications, Mr Dutton said it was unlikely anyone attempting that route would be successful.

"If you're an illegal bikie, if you're part of an outlaw motorcycle gang involved in organised criminal activity, you've just made it to the top of my list," Mr Dutton wrote on his facebook page earlier this year. "Coming to Australia is a privilege and if you're coming here harming Australians, ripping off our welfare system, committing serious crimes, then you're at the top of my list for deporting."