Conservative US commentator Candace Owens has slammed calls to have her banned from visiting Australia with a 10-word ‘reality check’.
Her planned tour in Australia and New Zealand in November is now in jeopardy after politicians and organisations urged for her visa application to be knocked back.
A ticket for her show in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide costs $95 – but it can cost as much as $1,500 for a VIP dinner with Ms Owens.
Having grown to fame during the Trump presidency, Ms Owens has drawn outrage for her controversial comments on Israel, the Holocaust and LGBTQI issues.
Home Affairs minister Tony Burke, who has the power to block or refuse a visa, said he would oversee a brief of Ms Owens’ application once it has been made.
‘My opposition to anti-Semitism and Islamophobia has always been on the record,’ he said on Friday.
Ms Owens likened the first time reading Mr Burke’s comments to a ‘Wizard of Oz “Dorothy we’re not in Kansas anymore” moment’.
‘It deeply underscored how different politics can be from one country to another,’ she told Daily Mail Australia.
‘In America, freedom of speech is quite sacred. I’m a Catholic mother to three young toddlers, not a criminal.’
Far-right US political pundit Candace Owens (pictured) has hit back at Aussie politicians and organisations calling for her visa into the country to be denied
Australia’s Home Affairs Minister, Tony Burke (pictured), said on Friday that he would personally oversee Ms Owens’ application for a planned tour of her live podcast
Speaking to 2GB’s Ben Fordham on Monday, Ms Owens delivered a 10-word ‘reality check’ to Mr Burke: ‘It’s not going to harm you to hear different ideas.’
The far-right commentator said she was ‘genuinely surprised’ by the ministers comments and the prospect of having her visa denied for the first time.
‘I travel all over the world and have never had any opposition or issues, ever,’ she said.
Ms Owens added that Australia’s approach to freedom of speech and debate appeared very different to the United States.
‘The American mindset remains in accordance to Evelyn Beatrice Hall’s famed quotation: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”,’ she said.
Ms Owens has previously claimed Israel was founded by a ‘cult’ and labelled some of the Holocaust atrocities as ‘completely absurd’.
She has also taken aim at minority groups and claimed there was a link between trans people, ‘clinical insanity’ and a rise in mass shootings.
Ms Owens responded on Sunday by accusing the media of negatively portraying her for what she argued are reasonable political views.
‘It was deemed ‘extreme’ that as a black woman, I did not submit to the Black Lives Matter narrative,’ Ms Owens said in a statement.
‘I instead called out the movement for weaponising the smear of racism to avoid criticism and laud criminality. For my contribution, I was labelled a “black white supremacist”.
‘Similarly, when I took the “extreme” position that forced lockdowns and vaccination run counter to individual freedom and happiness, I was labelled ”dangerously misinformed’ and accused of promoting death.’
She hoped to be able to be let into Australia for her live events so people could question her beliefs ‘to their heart’s content’.
‘I am ecstatic to come to Australia and I hope I have the chance to meet politicians, people, and organizations from both sides of the political aisle,’ Ms Owens said.
‘Conversation is the only way we grow.’
Ms Owens shot to fame during the Trump presidency and has drawn outrage for her controversial comments on Israel, the Holocaust and LGBT issues
Ms Owen’s statement claimed controversy over her opinions has been exacerbated by clips of her show being taken out of context.
‘Any person who listens to my show outside of media snippets knows fully well that I love Jewish people,’ Ms Owens said.
‘They have always been a huge part of my life, and I will continue to use my platform to call out the people and groups who are using Jewish pain and Jewish history to obfuscate their own bad behaviour.’
Independent Wentworth MP Allegra Spender is among Ms Owen’s critics who have called for the US commentator to be barred from the country.
‘Ms Owens is a media provocateur, who makes her living generating controversy, division and hatred. Her denial of the truth of The Holocaust is obscene,’ she said.
‘We don’t need her input to public discussion in Australia a time when we must preserve social cohesion. I welcome the minister’s call to review her visa application.’
Coalition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan added: ‘There is no place in Australia for people who spread hateful messages and undermine social cohesion.’
Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Peter Wertheim said Ms Owen’s views meant 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 into our country is yet another so-called celebrity who has made racist and bigoted comments about Jews and other vulnerable groups,’ he said.
‘Our new Minister for Immigration now has an opportunity to show the leadership needed to affirm that principle,’ he said.
