A court in Australia has overturned a minister's decision to deport a Maltese man who in 1991 brutally murdered his wife, a talkback radio host has claimed. 

2GB radio host Ray Hadley has said that Frederick Chetcuti will be allowed to stay in Australia after a New South Wales judge overturned a deportation order issued by Australian Immigration Minister Peter Dutton. 

Australian Immigration Minister Peter Dutton wanted Mr Chetcuti sent back to Malta. Photo: Wikimedia

Mr Chetcuti was sentenced to a minimum of 18 years in prison in 1993 for murdering his estranged wife Gloria. He has now been released.

A court had heard how Mr Chetcuti followed his wife in his car and forced her off the road at the Parramatta Lakes Reserve in New South Wales.

He hit her on the head several times with a heavy object intending to kill her and whilst she was unconscious but still alive placed three rocks weighing 11 kilograms inside her clothing to weigh her body down.

He then put her weighted unconscious body in the water of an inlet at Parramatta Lakes and she drowned.

His motivation was not financial, the court was told. Rather, Mr Chetcuti wanted to prevent his ex-wife from pursuing an application against him in the Family Court which he feared might result in him losing some of his property.   

Mr Chetcuti served his time at Lithgow Correctional Facility, where he was also charged with assaulting prison staff and other inmates. 

According to fiery radio show host Mr Hadley, earlier this week NSW judge Steven Rares quashed a deportation order which would have sent Mr Chetcuti back to Malta. 

In a 17-minute radio show aired two days ago, Mr Hadley railed against the judge's decision and insisted the convicted murderer should be sent back to Malta.  

"The hardest working Australians we have here are of Maltese origin," Mr Hadley says. "We've got a bad apple here, and the bad apple should be punted back from whence he came." 

Listen to Mr Hadley's show in the mp3 link below.