Kristina Keneally (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Talk about intellectually weak arguments! We heard Senator Paterson, first of all, assert one thing and then undercut his own logic with the second assertion. It doesn't even bear reflecting upon. All I am calling for is the same consistency that this Liberal-National government has applied in the past to people like Gavin McInnes, who founded the alt-Right group Proud Boys in November last year. He was denied a visa by this government so that he could not come here and speak, because he is a racist.

This government denied Holocaust denier and conspiracy theorist David Icke a visa in February this year. Here we go: Holocaust deniers and racists denied visas by this government. Senator Paterson, in all his love of free speech and all this quoting of Senator Stoker, that, 'It's okay, we just have to talk to racists and we can make it work out all right; we shouldn't be denying racists, we should be talking to them more.' Senator Paterson completely ignores that it is his government, a Liberal-National government, that has denied visas to people like this.

We're talking about Milo Yiannopoulos, who, in March 2019, was denied a visa by this Liberal-National government—your government, Senator Paterson; your government, Senator Cormann. They denied Yiannopoulos a visa. Why? Because he called Islam a 'barbaric' and 'alien' religion. He did it in the wake of the Christchurch massacre. Is that why they denied the visa—just because it was in the wake of the massacre—or does this Liberal-National government actually uphold the multicultural, multireligious values that have made Australia great? This is why we have this section in the Immigration Act; this is why we have this discretion for the minister for immigration: to ensure that people who are going to come to this country and incite discord, possibly violent reaction, in the community are able to be barred. Senator Paterson would have us believe that we just let anyone in. We don't. His government has barred people like Gavin McInnes, David Icke and Milo Yiannopoulos, but yet there is someone as reprehensible as Raheem Kassam, just because, oops, Senator Stoker accepted a speaking invitation, and she wouldn't want to be embarrassed twice, because already, earlier this year, she had to pull out of a conference because of the people she was going to be sharing the stage with.

After I made my speech last night, I wrote to the Minister for Home Affairs, Peter Dutton, and the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs, David Coleman, asking them to deny Raheem Kassam a visa, as they have done with Gavin McInnes, as they have done with David Icke, as they have done with Mino Yiannopoulos. These letters were hand-delivered to the respective offices at 10 am this morning. This afternoon, I saw a headline on the The Australian home page that said:

The government will reject Kristina Keneally's calls to ban far-right UK activist.

That story says:

The Australian understand that the Department of Home Affairs will not revoke a visa for former Brietbart UK editor Raheem Kassam despite his offensive tweets which have included calling on Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to “shut her legs”—

so she couldn't reproduce—

after she revealed she had a miscarriage.

These are comments that, today, Minister Cormann has described as reprehensible and abhorrent. The government, however, so far seems to be quite happy for someone like this to come to Australia.

Senator Stoker told The Australian that she's proud to be speaking at the CPAC event. I cannot believe that someone like Senator Stoker or Mr Kelly, or anyone in the Liberal-National government, is comfortable sharing a stage with someone like Mr Kassam, who describes Islam as 'fundamentally evil'. It's not all that different, in fact, to what Milo Yiannopoulos said when he described Islam as a 'barbaric' and 'alien' religion. And, frankly, regarding his comments about Nicola Sturgeon and his implications about the role of women in public life—the view of women fundamentally that he portrays—it is bile; it is being spewed. Raheem Kassam has also said that Islam is a 'fascistic and totalitarian ideology'. So my question to the government is: how is Raheem Kassam any different to Milo Yiannopoulos? How is he any different to the man to whom you had already issued a visa and banned? And why won't you review the decision by Minister Coleman to allow him into the country? (Time expired)