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Like most countries Australia has a "character test" for nonresidents/noncitizens to be allowed to stay in the country on visitor visas. Under Australian law a person in Australia on a visitor visa crosses the line to "bad character" after 12 months jail time, at which point that person is considered to have failed the character test and his/her visa is revoked.
People who entered Australia with visas that no longer exist are considered overstayers and those people are deported, just like happens in NZ. While the wheels of bureacracy slowly turn the people awaiting deportation are placed in "detention centres". (Not always though - some people seem to get escorted straight from jail to the airport.)
Until the current government came to power following the last Australian general election there was some wiggle room for the Dept of Immigration to exercise "discretion" and allow the overstayer in question to remain in the country while trying to sort out a visa. That ability to exercise discretion has been removed, so now it's "if you don't have a visa you're not allowed to be here, door's to your left, the end".
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