A man jailed for murdering Sydney heart surgeon Victor Chang will remain in custody past his intended release date while the State Parole Authority decides his future.

Phillip Choon Tee Lim, wearing prison greens, hung his head and looked tearful when he appeared on Friday via video-link at a parole authority review hearing in western Sydney.

He is due for release on Wednesday, by which time he will have served his minimum sentence of 18 years.

But that decision was "vacated" late last month to allow fresh submissions, which were made by the state government at the hearing, arguing that he remain in jail.

Dr Chang, 54, was shot dead on a footpath at Mosman in Sydney's northern suburbs on July 4, 1991, in a failed extortion attempt by Lim and Chew Seng (Ah Sung) Liew.

Lim and Liew were given maximum sentences of 24 and 26 years respectively.

Terry Christie, who chaired the five-member panel of the parole authority on Friday, implied that the crown's case had merit.

"The authority finds ... a large part of the state's submission to be of a significantly persuasive nature," Mr Christie told the hearing.

Counsel for the crown, Lloyd Babb SC, argued that because Lim would be immediately deported to his home country of Malaysia upon release, he would in effect not serve his six-year parole period.

"In a very practical way, this sentence will end in 18 years," Mr Babb told the hearing.

"It's not conditional freedom - it's absolute freedom."

Mr Babb also said there was no guarantee Lim would be supervised in Malaysia and there would be no deterrence against re-offending.

Releasing him would send the wrong message to foreign nationals who faced deportation after serving less than their maximum sentence, he said.

Lim's solicitor, Jack Grahame, said his client's deportation upon release was no secret and no one could predict what Malaysia would do when Lim returned to his home country.

And the lack of supervision was a consequence of the government's failure to negotiate reciprocal agreements with Malaysia.

"This is simply and purely an attempt to re-sentence this man," Mr Grahame told the hearing.

He also accused the NSW government of pandering to radio "shock jocks" and the media attention that erupted when Lim's intended release was made public in October.

"It is not in the public interest for there to be a political interference in the work of a statutory authority," Mr Grahame said.

Following the verbal arguments from both sides, Mr Christie told the hearing that the panel intended to deliberate by Friday afternoon but chose to put over their decision until November 20.

Dr Chang's family did not appear at the hearing but provided a written submission, which will remain confidential.

Outside the hearing, Mr Grahame told reporters Lim would appeal to the NSW Supreme Court if the authority voted against his release.

Jim Counsel, who led the police investigation into the murder, said Dr Chang's family had had to relive the experience.

"They were deprived of a loving husband and a loving father and I guess that it's very sad that has come up for him," the retired officer told reporters.

Howard Brown, vice-president of Victim of Crimes Assistance League, attended Friday's hearing and said controversy over Lim's release was a result of inaction by the federal government.

"We need to get international agreements so that we know that if a person is released to another jurisdiction they will in fact be supervised in that jurisdiction," Mr Brown told reporters outside the hearing.

He also said Lim should spend another four years in jail.