Conservative influencer Candace Owens really wants to bring her unhinged melange of hate to Australia, but Australia is extremely not interested.
The country’s High Court turned away the illustrious Ms. Owens, agreeing with the government’s decision to refuse her entry. Owens had applied for a visa last year as part of a speaking tour, but Australia Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke denied her request based on her failure to meet the character requirements under the Migration Act.
Candace Owens? Lacking character? Impossible!
Australia Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke
She certainly thought so anyway, so she petitioned the High Court, saying that the Migration Act was unconstitutional because barring her from showing up to spew her weird hate violated her right to freedom of political communication.
One might think that, before making this particular argument, Owens might have thought to check whether that is actually a freedom guaranteed under the Australian Constitution. Instead, she barreled forward, only to have the High Court explain that not only is there no explicit free speech protection in there, but also that any implicit freedom as to political communication “is not a ‘personal right,’ is not unlimited and is not absolute.”
So what, exactly, is so bad about Owens’ character, huh?
Honestly? Where to begin. Between Burke’s initial rejection and the High Court’s decision, there is “From downplaying the impact of the Holocaust with comments about [Nazi SS Officer Josef] Mengele through to claims that Muslims started slavery, Candace Owens has the capacity to incite discord in almost every direction.”
Oh come on! Is that all you got, Australia? In good old America, this is just polite breakfast table conversation. Who doesn’t start the day with a little light Holocaust minimizing and Muslim-bashing?
Well, turns out there were also the “extremist and inflammatory comments towards Muslim, Black, Jewish, and LGBTQIA+ communities which generate controversy and hatred.”
This has got to feel all sorts of weird for a conservative American influencer, because on the homefront these days, the exact type of hate Owens loves spewing means you get to run the government, not be told by some two-bit prison colony that you can’t come in.
Why can’t Australia be more like America, which so highly values the free speech rights of immigrants here on visas? Sure, never mind that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is bragging about stripping visas from immigrants who dared besmirch the name of the Sainted Charlie Kirk.
Er, uh, pay no attention to the administration’s multiple attempts to imprison people for making pro-Palestinian statements. We’re talking about Down Under right now.
What kind of world is it when Americans cannot export their gross hatreds abroad?!
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What will Australians do if they can’t hear firsthand about Owens’ theory that Brigitte Macron, the wife of French President Emmanuel Macron, is actually a man? Does Australia really have the right to protect Australians from visitors who “stir up or encourage dissension or strife on political matters”?
Turns out Australia thinks so, and that’s really the only vote that matters here.
At least Owens is in bad company in being excluded from Australia. She joins Kanye West, who got barred over his ode to Hitler.
As pleasing as this all is to watch unfold, Trump will probably just try to demand Australia let her in, or he will impose crushing, random tariffs. But he’s going to do that no matter what, so just keep her out.
