Tucker Carlson to tour Australia with Clive Palmer
The firebrand broadcaster will visit Australia for the first time to headline a $200-a-head free speech conference alongside one of the country’s richest men.
Tucker Carlson is heading to Australia for the first time.
The former Fox News host is teaming up with former federal MP and mining billionaire Clive Palmer to hit the public speaking circuit.
The pair will front The Australian Freedom Conference, an event that will take place all around Australia from late June and host sessions in major cities as well as Cairns, Perth and Adelaide.
Tickets went on sale on Friday and start at $203.
Advertising for the conference with Mr Carlson as the headline act began airing on Friday on Sky News Australia and on social media.
Mr Carlson appears, without his trademark tie, in the one-minute advertisements spruiking the event that is sponsored by Mr Palmer’s company Mineralogy.
“Why am I dressed this way? Because I’m so excited to come to Australia. I’m American, obviously. But I’ve been thinking about Australia my entire life as most Americans my age have. Australia always seemed like a place that was very much like where we lived, but maybe a little more exotic and interesting, but again, I’ve never seen it,” a polo T-shirt clad Mr Carlson said.
The genesis for the event came about, according to Mr Carlson, when he “got a call from Clive Palmer”.
“We’re going be talking about what is happening in your country and ours, countries with common histories, common values, and common threats.
“Free speech is bigger than any one person or any one organisation. Societies are defined by what they will not permit. What we’re watching is the total inversion of virtue,” Mr Carlson added in a heavily edited clip.
Mr Carlson now runs his own media outlet, called The Tucker Carlson Network, and broadcasts via Elon Musk’s social media platform X where his videos frequently clock up hundreds of millions of views.
He has previously weighed in on local issues and politics, including being heavily critical of Australia’s gun laws and the national response to the Covid pandemic.
He is also the first Western journalist to be granted an audience with Russian president Vladimir Putin since the invasion of Ukraine.
“Tucker has long advocated that news coverage in the west can be wrongly used as a tool of repression and control. He believes democracy cannot function properly under these controls and the only solution to ending propaganda is fearlessly speaking the truth,” Mr Palmer said.
As well as speaking tours, Mr Palmer is also busy moving ahead with his long held plans to build Titanic II. A project he said will be “an antidote to woke politics”.
Mr Carlson and Mr Palmer will share the stage with Queensland GP Dr Melissa McCann and filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza, whose most recent documentary was launched with a red carpet premiere hosted by former US president Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
The Australian understands more details about Mr Carlson’s visit will be released on Monday.
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