Michael McGuire: Dutton is the last person who should judge ‘character’

IF Lauren Southern and Milo Yiannopoulos were granted entry here, Chelsea Manning should be given a visa too. They’re no worse than our current crop of pollies, says Michael McGuire.

IMAGINE being told you were a person of poor character by Peter Dutton.

A man who about a fortnight ago knifed a prime minister in possibly the most shambolic coup in Australian political history. A man who a couple of days previously tweeted: “Just to make very clear, the Prime Minister has my support.’’ A man who routinely tries to stop severely ill refugee children being transferred from their prison on Nauru to Australia so they can receive vital medical treatment. A man who, on the other hand, is more than happy to intervene and overrule his own border-protection force to help out old friends and family members of the powerful, just so they can keep their au pairs in the country.

Yes, this is a bloke who gets to decide whether someone else is of good character.

Which brings us to Chelsea Manning and the government’s refusal to grant her a visa for a speaking tour to warn of the dangers of the surveillance state on grounds of her “character”. Now, Manning is a problematic and controversial figure. As a soldier, and when she was called Bradley Manning, she was sentenced to 35-years jail for leaking hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables and army reports to Wikileaks and Julian Assange. This was the leak which essentially created the myth of Assange.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton is the person who decides whether someone is of good character and will be granted a visa. (Pic: Lukas Coch/AAP)

Without it, there is every chance he would have remained a largely unknown fringe hacker. Manning served seven years before former US president Barack Obama commuted the sentence. He didn’t pardon Manning, but did release her.

Since then Manning has spoken in countries such as Sweden, Germany and Canada about the dangers of government overreach in surveillance, the creation of a police state and the threat companies such as Google and Facebook pose to data privacy.

She is also about to visit New Zealand.

But Australia has denied her a visa.

And strangely enough there has been no uprising of anger from all the usual voices on the right about free speech being denied. Again, the right has proven to have no interest in actual free speech. The only speech they are interested in is their own. Their own voices, their own views.

Compare the reaction to when far-right Canadian internet celebrity Laura Southern was briefly denied a visa earlier this year because she filled out the wrong form. Columnist Andrew Bolt was a supporter and Senator Cory Bernardi suspected “political interference’’ was at work.

Chelsea Manning hasn’t been granted a visa but will take part in a speaking tour via video link. (Pic: Patrick Semansky/AAP)

You can argue that what separates the cases of Southern and Manning is that the latter has a criminal conviction. And it is true that under section 501 of the immigration act one of the reasons for denying a visa to enter Australia is a criminal conviction. But convicted criminals have been allowed to tour Australia before. Former British MP and author Jeffrey Archer for one.

The same immigration act section also includes other reasons for denying a visa on character grounds. These include if there is a risk the person would: “Vilify a segment of the Australian community or incite discord in the Australian community or in a segment of that community’’. Southern came with the express intention of doing just that.

Then we have professional troll Milo Yiannopoulos touring Australia later in the year. Yiannopoulos has previously made comments interpreted as supporting paedophilia. He is touring with Fraser “final solution” Anning and conservative commentator Anne Coulter.

It can be taken as read there will be a bit of vilification in there somewhere.

Let them ventilate whatever crackpot ideas they have to the small audiences they attract. My only request would be that people don’t demonstrate against them. It only encourages them. Yiannopoulos is an itch in search of a scratch. Don’t give him the satisfaction.

The only reason anyone has heard of people like Southern and Yiannopoulos is because of the protesters that turn up. It’s a kind of sad symbiotic relationship.

But it doesn’t mean they should be banned either. All of them should be allowed into Australia. Manning, Yiannopoulos, Southern. Can any of them really be more dangerous than some of the politicians we already have?

Michael McGuire is a journalist for The Adelaide Advertiser.

@mcguiremi

Originally published as Michael McGuire: Dutton is the last person who should judge ‘character’