Milo Yiannopoulos banned from entering Australia

A decision to block right-wing star Milo Yiannopoulos from Australia has enraged Pauline Hanson, who called the government “gutless and weak”.

The government has reportedly rejected alt-right star Milo Yiannopoulos’s application for a visa to enter Australia.

Mr Yiannopoulos, who has shot to fame by saying provocative and often offensive things, was rejected on character grounds, The Age and Sydney Morning Herald report.

He has a month to appeal the decision.

It comes on the heels of “men’s rights” group founder Gavin McInnes being blocked from entering the country in December.

And it isn’t entirely unexpected.

Last week, Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt published an excerpt from a letter the Immigration Department had sent to Mr Yiannopoulos describing its reasoning.

It said there was a risk Mr Yiannopoulos would “incite discord in the Australian community or in a segment of that community”, pointing to the large protests that happened during his last visit to Australia in 2017.

“Despite the locations of your previous appearances being withheld by the organisers until 24 hours prior to the events, there were significant protests at both the Sydney and Melbourne events,” the department wrote.

“The protest at the Melbourne event involved violence between those protesting and your supporters. You were issued with a bill of $50,000 by Victoria Police for the cost of policing your event.”

Milo Yiannopoulos. Picture: Getty

Mr Yiannopoulos was hit with the massive bill after a riot broke out at the entrance to his show. Two people were arrested and five police officers were injured.

RELATED: What really happens at Milo’s speaking events

Mr Yiannopoulos responded to his rejection by posting on his official Facebook page this afternoon.

“I can’t improve on Pauline Hanson’s assessment,” he said, going on to quote the One Nation leader.

“I’m sad to say the government is now acting as an arm of Antifa. Milo and Tommy have not called for violence. They have been the victims of violence. By refusing them entry into Australia this gutless government is validating the left’s use of violence to silence people,” Ms Hanson said.

The Tommy to whom she refers is the right-wing British activist Tommy Robinson.

Ms Hanson lobbied Immigration Minister David Coleman on Mr Yiannopoulos’s behalf in the lead-up to the decision. On Monday she accused Mr Coleman of delaying and “glossing over” the issue to “keep me at bay”.

“I think that is weak, I think it’s gutless. He has no reason to stop Milo from coming into the country,” she said.

“You may not agree with everything he says, as long as he doesn’t go out there to advocate violence. If you want to actually stop someone, stop the protesters with their violence. They’re the ones that should be stopped.”

WATCH: @PaulineHansonOz says she has been fighting to get a visa for Milo Yiannopoulos and the immigration minister has been “glossing it over” and ignoring her requests. #theboltreport @SkyNewsAust

MORE: https://t.co/OKZnIvLaI1 pic.twitter.com/7cK1vyCx8S

— The Bolt Report (@theboltreport) March 4, 2019

Today she reacted furiously to the Immigration Department’s decision.

“I am angry. I can’t see what Milo has done to be banned from Australia,” Ms Hanson told The Australian.

“The left are pushing this. It’s all about the election, it’s all about votes.”

Late last year, Mr Yiannopoulos announced he would visit Australia for a series of events alongside right-wing commentator Ann Coulter.

That tour was later cancelled, but instead of having their tickets refunded, fans were told they could attend Mr McInnes’s tour instead.

Of course, Mr McInnes was eventually barred from entering the country as well.

When Mr Yiannopoulos was last in Australia, back in 2017, Liberal Democrat senator David Leyonhjelm invited him to Parliament House.

During an hour-long Q&A, Mr Yiannopoulos encouraged everyone to read Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, saying people “should read the very, very worst as well as the very, very best that has been thought and written”.

Mr Yiannopoulos first gained attention as a senior editor at the alt-right news website Breitbart, which used to be run by Steve Bannon before he was hired, and fired, by Donald Trump.

Mr Yiannopoulos was forced to resign from that role in February of 2017 after saying sex between adults and children was sometimes “not that big of a deal” and describing victims as “whingeing selfish brats”.

He said older men could help young boys “discover who they are” when they couldn’t speak to their parents and offered “coming-of-age relationships”. He later denied supporting paedophilia.

That wasn’t his first, nor his last controversy.

Last year Paypal suspended Mr Yiannopoulos’s account after he used the system to send a Jewish journalist $14.88.

White supremacists use the number 14 as shorthand for the 14 words slogan: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.” The number 88 stands for “Heil Hitler” — the letter H is the eighth member of the alphabet.

Originally published as Milo Yiannopoulos banned from entering Australia