Political media personality Candace Owens banned from Australia
Immigration Minister Tony Burke has cancelled the visa application of US media personality Candace Owens one month before the extremist influencer was due in Australia for a tour.
Immigration Minister Tony Burke has cancelled the visa application of US media personality Candace Owens, just one month before the extremist influencer was due in Australia for a planned national tour.
Mr Burke on Sunday revealed he would not grant the conservative speaker entry to Australia as she has “the capacity to incite discord in almost every direction”.
“From downplaying the impact of the Holocaust with comments about (German SS officer Josef) Mengele through to claims that Muslims started slavery, Candace Owens has the capacity to incite discord in almost every direction,” Mr Burke said.
“Australia’s national interest is best served when Candace Owens is somewhere else.”
Owens had scheduled a five-date speaking tour in November, with events in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide. Tickets ranged from $95 for general admission to $295 for a VIP meet-and-greet. A private dinner with Owens would cost $1500. Owens has almost 3 million subscribers on YouTube, where she publishes interviews and political commentary, and shares conspiracy theories and criticism of movements such as Black Lives Matter.
In July she described stories about Nazi experiments on twins in concentration camps during World War II as “completely absurd” and “bizarre propaganda”.
Her speaking tour of Australia was advertised as “provocative” and appealing to audiences seeking “alternative viewpoints”.
“Known for her controversial takes and unwavering stance, Candace is set to light up stages across Australia and New Zealand with her bold and unfiltered perspectives,” a description on ticketing website Ticketek says.
In an announcement video posted to her social media accounts in August, Owens said Australian audiences would hear her “discuss everything they do not want us speaking about”, including “freedom of speech” and “why Christ really is king”.
She has not yet publicly responded to the visa refusal and tour promoter Rocksman has been contacted for comment.
Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Peter Wertheim had called on Mr Burke to cancel Owens’s visa, arguing she failed the character test under the Migration Act.
“At a time of unprecedented strains on the cohesiveness of Australian society, which is very largely the outcome of ignorant and malicious comment on social media, the last thing we need to be importing … is yet another so-called celebrity who has made racist and bigoted comments about Jews and other vulnerable groups,” he said.
Coalition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan also backed blocking Owens from Australia. “There is no place in Australia for people who spread hateful messages and undermine social cohesion,” he said.
A wave of anti-Semitism has washed over Australia since the Hamas terror attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
On October 13, the shopfront window of Avner’s, a Jewish bakery in inner Sydney, was marked with an upside down red triangle, a Nazi symbol used by Hamas to identify Jewish targets.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING: NEWSWIRE
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