Extremist influencer defies calls to cancel Australia tour

Far-right US commentator Candace Owens is on a collision course with Immigration Minister Tony Burke, vowing to push on with her Australian tour in defiance of calls to reject her visa application.

Burke last week indicated he would block Owens’ expected visa application, telling this masthead: “Tickets to these events are selling for $100. I hope she has a good refunds policy.” Owens has not yet applied for a visa.

Commentator Candace Owens has made claims about a range of minority groups, including trans people. Credit: The Washington Post

Burke’s comments came after this masthead reported that Jewish groups and the federal Coalition oppose her travel to Australia because of her conspiracy-tinged attacks on Jews, Muslims and trans people.

Speaking on Sydney radio station 2GB on Monday, the far-right influencer – who thinks Trump has become too moderate – said she was excited to travel to Australia for her November tour, VIP tickets for which are selling at $1500.

“It’s kind of incredible to think people could be so fearful of just speech and conversation,” she said.

“I was quite surprised to see that: they were like ‘don’t give her a visa, she’s a bad person’. But I promise you it is not going to harm you to hear different ideas.”

Owens, who has 18 million followers on her social platforms, has previously made mendacious claims that Israel was founded by a “cult”, spread misinformation about “secret Jewish gangs” operating in Hollywood, and minimised Nazi atrocities.

She has also made claims about a range of minority groups including trans people, whom she falsely said suffered “clinical insanity” and claimed without basis could be responsible for a rise in mass shootings.

Coalition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan said last week Labor should block Owens’ visa to avoid the spread of “hateful messages”, while Burke said he had always taken a hard line on hate speech and had spoken to Jillian Segal, the Australian antisemitism envoy, to prepare a brief on the Owens matter.

In her interview with 2GB host Ben Fordham – an employee of Nine Entertainment, owner of this masthead – Owens aired discredited claims about voting irregularities in the US, saying Americans “don’t have faith in our election process”.

Jillian Segal, Australia’s special envoy on antisemitism.Credit: Kate Geraghty

She added that she didn’t care about any of the criticisms of her claims.

“I’ve just been used to the media intentionally taking something I say and re-presenting it. Like, ‘she hates black people’ or for COVID, ‘she wants your grandma to die’,” she said.

Fordham, a high-rating a Sydney presenter, repeatedly plugged the website selling tickets to Owens’ events and suggested claims of antisemitism against Owens related to one set of remarks.

“Because it mentioned the word ‘Hitler’, someone at a later date then grabbed that piece of audio, they turned it into a story, and ever since you’ve had this allegation chasing you around, right?” Fordham asked.

However, Owens left the Daily Wire, the website founded by conservative Jewish commentator Ben Shapiro, in March, with Shapiro saying she had been “disgraceful” in her commentary on Israel.

Well-known US neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes said this week Owens was weakening the far right’s anti-Israel movement because she was “getting a lot of the facts wrong”.

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