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Controversial right-wing speaker Milo Yiannopoulos lands in Sydney with a bang

A CONTROVERSIAL British-born celebrity has landed in Australia packed with punches — many of them towards Waleed Aly.

Milo Yiannopolous defends himself after lashing out at Karl Stefanovic and Jessica Rowe

“I THINK Australia might need saving from itself sometime soon, so I’m here as a sort of warning from America.”

Controversial political commentator and internet supervillain Milo Yiannopoulos landed in Australia packed with punches aimed at the land Down Under.

Some of those punches were aimed at The Project’s Waleed Aly, who Yiannopoulos called “an intellectual lightweight”, “total coward” and “insubstantial”.

“I’d like to see if I’m right about that,” he told news.com.au.

Clad in Gucci and sunglasses, the provocative 33-year-old, who has been deemed a Nazi and “paedophile apologist” and wants Muslims “sent back to the Middle East”, breezed into Sydney slaying some of Australia’s most popular celebrities and politicians.

Yiannopoulos held his press conference ahead of a an Australian speaking tour, title The Troll Academy, which he has arrived for.

Along with Aly, Studio 10 host Jessica Rowe, Today co-host Karl Stefanovic, Greens leader Richard Di Natale and Greens Senator Sarah Hanson Young were all targets as Mr Yiannopoulos claimed he was in Australia to “save it from itself”.

He expressed his disappointment when “terrified” TV presenters weren’t at his Sydney press conference to greet him personally.

“I think I’d just mock them for 15 minutes,” Mr Yiannopoulos told news.com.au.

“What I really want from them is a serious substantive debate on the issues. I want to talk to Jessica Rowe about why she thinks there is rape culture on campus when there isn’t, why she thinks there is a wage gap when there isn’t.”

Yiannopoulos had been featured on some of the TV programs he slagged off prior to his arrival in Australia, and managed to offend all his interviewers, including Sunrise host David Koch.

Milo Yiannopoulos is 'ready to offend Australia', he said as he arrived in Sydney. Picture: Nathan Richter
Milo Yiannopoulos is 'ready to offend Australia', he said as he arrived in Sydney. Picture: Nathan Richter

Yiannopoulos claims Australia is his largest audience outside of the United States, in fact he says his Australian tour has sold more than 10,000 tickets.

Australia’s response had been “very positive” towards him, almost “uniformly delighted”, after taking aim of some of Australia’s most well known identities.

Yiannopoulos claimed The Project, Studio 10 and the Today Show all cancelled scheduled interviews prior to his arrival in Sydney, which put the “one man wrecking crew” on the war path.

However, a Channel 10 spokesman told news.com.au: “The Project and Studio 10 did not cancel interviews with Milo Yiannapoulos. We never scheduled interviews with him.”

The Today Show declined to comment.

Yiannopoulos said the reason he was not appearing on the Today Show and The Project was that Karl Stefanovic and Waleed Aly “have assumed that I’m dumber than I am, assumed that I was some kind of idiotic reactionary Trump-voting lunatic or something, then they realised this person’s quite complex and complicated and interesting and obviously very popular”.

When questioned if it was his place to be offensive, he replied: “Who cares, who cares? How are these people going to survive in war zones if they can’t take a bit of teasing from me?

“Our job as journalists is to mess with people and destroy their lives.

“This guy, Stefanovic or whatever, he has mysteriously cancelled last minute with me. Why? “It’s repeated over and over again, throughout the networks, throughout the channels, they realise they can’t make conservatives look bad again today.”

Yiannopoulos said he hadn’t watched any of the Australian shows “unless I’m on it”, apart from The Project which he said he “watched through gritted teeth, strapped to the chair”.

“I’ve said some really bad things about Muslims, he (Waleed) could throw some stuff at me that is very difficult to answer, why not do it?” he asked.

“If I’m such a clown and troll shouldn’t it be easy within a few minutes of live television to rip me to shreds?”

Yiannopoulos’s Australian tour comes after he resigned from notorious US website Breitbart News in 2015 following Buzzfeed publishing unsavoury comments over paedophilia.

His shows, presented by Penthouse magazines, will be on between November 30 and December 7. Among his commitments in Australia is a Q & A event at Parliament House, hosted by Liberal Democrat senator David Leyonhjelm.

“I’ll do provocations,” he told news.com.au when asked about his reputation as a racist.

“I’ll push out what I thought gay people were always supposed to do, which was push the limits, be provocative, be interesting. I see myself in that drag queen tradition of existing on the fringes of what’s allowed, pushing taboos.

“I’ll say things that are based entirely on fact but are very provocative packaged.”

Milo Yiannopoulos speaks for his Troll Academy Tour. Picture: Lisa Maree Williams
Milo Yiannopoulos speaks for his Troll Academy Tour. Picture: Lisa Maree Williams

He described feminists “sobbing in the corner wondering why they don’t have a boyfriend.”

He called former prime minister Julia Gillard “a prick” before admitting he was a fan of another former leader, Tony Abbott.

“I liked that guy Tony Abbott, I thought he was cool because he was ballsy and upset all the people that I didn’t like ... he was up against Julia Gillard who seemed like a complete prick,” Yiannopoulos said.

In a press conference today he urged politicians debating the same-sex marriage bill to decline the legislation because it doesn’t offer protection for freedom of religious expression.

“And I say that as a married gay person,” he said.

Yiannopoulos, who was raised in Kent, England, but now lives in Miami, Florida, is married to an African-American male.

Many Australians were only introduced to the right-wing ranter this year but Yiannopoulos has been slowly inserting himself into the world’s political elite fort a number of years.

He is known to have ties with US President Donald Trump, billionaire Robert Mercer and white supremist Richard Spencer.

Yiannopoulos has been open about his “poorly worded” comments in 2015 which claimed the age of consent was “not this black-and-white thing” and that relationships “between younger boys and older men … can be hugely positive experiences”.

- youngma@news.com.au

Original URL: https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/current-affairs/controversial-rightwing-speaker-milo-yiannopoulos-lands-in-sydney-with-a-bang/news-story/4e1e861c30954eed558445a84542bdd4