Lance Corporal Ngati Kanohi Haapu

This is , more on him later.

In 1990 an America lawyer and author, Mike Godwin, proposed Godwin's law which states: "As an online discussion grows longer and longer the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one."

It is a common misconception that Godwin's law implies that a person loses an argument once they make a comparison to Nazism. In fact Godwin's law was proposed to reduce the incidence of inappropriate hyperbole, in other words people should think harder about the Holocaust before making glib comparisons to the Nazis.

What I have learnt of the rise of Nazism has not come from the many history books I have read but from reading the accounts of people who lived there. By and large they were ordinary people, who thought themselves decent and law abiding, like most of us do.

For them, Nazism was not something that was thrust upon them by brown-shirted thugs or leather-coated Gestapo agents. It was not created by propaganda films or Hitler's speeches, which many Germans never heard. For them the rise of Nazism came in the form of minor officials - the bullying policeman, the petty-minded bureaucrat, the officious committee member - people given more authority than they knew how to exercise with care and responsibly. Those officials used their authority in a callous, arbitrary and ultimately brutal manner. They were the cogs that helped drive the Nazi machine to its genocidal ends.

But back to Lance Corporal Haapu, better known as Ko, who is a former New Zealand soldier who served in Afghanistan. While there Ko was involved in a number of skirmishes with the Taliban, was awarded three medals of honour, and served on the security detail of New Zealand prime minister John Key. In 2012 Ko left the army and moved to Australia, where he has a job, a partner and a step-daughter. Ko has no criminal convictions in either Australia or New Zealand.

Last week Ko visited a friend in Perth's Casurina Prison. During that visit Ko was arrested and his visa was revoked, allegedly for being a member of an outlaw motorcycle gang - the Rebels, who are not classed as a criminal organisation in Western Australia. Deemed a security risk Ko was held in solitary confinement for four days and is now in gaol awaiting deportation.

The person responsible for Ko's arrest and impending deportation is Australia's very own cog in the machine, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton. According to one of Dutton's underlings, Ko has been arrested due to the Immigration department's character test:

"A person does not pass the character test if the minister reasonably suspects that the person has been or is a member of a group or organisation which has been involved in criminal conduct."

I'll let you be the judge of Ko's character. Here's is some insight into the character of Peter Dutton:

The UN and Amnesty International have presented compelling evidence to show that customs officials made payments to people smugglers, a crime under Australian law. Dutton has refused to answer those allegations and despite being given numerous opportunities, has never denied them.

In response to an Australian Human Rights Commission report detailing the mental, physical and sexual abuse of children in detention, Dutton labeled the author of the report, Gillian Triggs "a disgrace". Furthermore he has refused to investigate those claims and created the Australian Border Force Act 2015 (supported by the Opposition) which means anyone working in a detention camp who reports cases of abuse can be gaoled for doing so.

Last week Fazil Chegani, a detainee on Christmas Island and another victim of Dutton's character test, was killed in unexplained circumstances after escaping from the compound. Dutton has refused to provide details of Fazil death, insisting only that it was not suspicious.

I could go on with endless tales of Dutton's diabolical incompetence and cruelty, but if you're still reading then I think you get the picture. A proverbial case of the tin-pot calling the decorated Maori war veteran black.

I am not suggesting we are seeing the makings of a Holocaust in Australia, as Tony Abbott once glibly did, but I do not draw the comparison lightly when I suggest we are today going down the same path that ordinary Germans found themselves on some 80 years ago, lead by the same minor officials.