Far-right political commentator Candace Owens has revealed her shock at a stark difference between Australia and America after learning she may be denied entry here.
Owens is planning to shows in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide in November.
Having found fame during the Trump presidency, Owens has drawn outrage for her controversial comments on Israel, the Holocaust and LGBTQI issues.
Her Australian tour is in jeopardy after Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said he would ‘personally’ oversee her visa application.
Mr Burke noted that he has ‘clear legal powers to knock back a visa to anyone who would incite discord’.
Owens told Daily Mail Australia that she was ‘completely shocked’ by Mr Burke’s stance and said it highlighted a massive gap between Australia and the US.
‘It just could not happen in America, that any politician would be proud to come out and to speak about using their powers to shut down a visa for a person that isn’t a criminal,’ she said.
If Mr Burke was to follow through with denying Owens a visa, she said it would be a ‘stain on Australia – and not one that you’re easily going to wipe away’.
Controversial far-right US political commentator Candace Owens (pictured) has revealed she was ‘completely shocked’ by Tony Burke’s comments
Department of Home Affairs minister Tony Burke (pictured) said he would ‘personally’ review Ms Owens’ visa application because of her history of controversial opinions
Owens has previously taken aim at minority groups and claimed there was a link between trans people, ‘clinical insanity’ and a rise in mass shootings.
She has also claimed Israel was founded by a ‘cult’ and labelled some of the Holocaust atrocities as ‘completely absurd’.
Those atrocities included well-documented, horrific experiments conducted by the Nazi ‘Angel of Death’, Josef Mengele, on twins imprisoned at Auschwitz.
In an episode of Candace Owens Live, aired in July, the commentator said the experiments sounded like bizarre propaganda because they would be a ‘tremendous waste of time and supplies’.
Mengele’s oldest living survivor, 100-year-old Annetta Able, joined Independent Teal MP Zali Steggall in calling for Owens to be banned from entering the country.
‘As a survivor of Dr Mengele’s inhumane experiments in Auschwitz, I feel compelled to speak out against Candace Owens’ planned visit to Australia,’ Ms Able said.
‘Her recent statement dismissing the horrific experiments I endured as “bizarre propaganda” is not just deeply offensive, it is a dangerous distortion of historical truth that I witnessed with my own eyes.
‘I urge the Australian government to deny Candace Owens a visa.’
Owens said her opinions should not dilute her chances to secure a visa to enter the country and if her visa is accepted, invited Ms Able to speak to her.
‘Stopping a Catholic mother-of-three from coming into this country, that’s quite startling,’ she said.
‘I should be able to travel to a country because I’m not a criminal.
‘I’ve never hurt anyone. I’ve never assigned anyone to violence. I’ve never been even mildly accused of an incitement to violence.’
While organisations have tried to have her events cancelled in the past, Owens said she hasn’t seen ‘the government embracing that’.
‘I’m okay to be invited to college and high school campuses to speak in front of children, but I’m too much of a threat in terms of Australian politics?’ she said.
If Mr Burke did allow Owens into the country, the commentator wouldn’t ‘even think it would be a win’.
‘I just think this should be a normal circumstance. I’m not a criminal, I’m a mum bringing her family,’ she said.
Having grown to fame during the Trump presidency, Owens has drawn outrage for her controversial comments on Israel, the Holocaust and LGBTQI issues.
While disagreeing with Mr Burke’s ‘extremely hurtful’ comments, Owens said she would be keen to meet him and discuss their differences.
‘I would love to meet any person that wanted to speak to me and thought that I had said something wrong,’ she said.
‘When people actually meet me and hear the truth, they’re going to register it as such.’
The issue isn’t the first stoush with Australia after she critiqued government lockdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic.
During an 2021 episode of her late night show, Owens blasted 5km travel limits, household gathering bans and nighttime curfews, as ‘imprisoning citizens against their will’.
Throughout her political career, she said it was the ‘first time when Australian politics became the most relevant’.
‘And I think that Americans and myself included were quite shocked at how harsh the Australian Government was treating its people,’ she said.
The visa issue has similarly surprised her because of the starkly different approach to freedom of speech and debate between Australia and the US.
‘In America, we care deeply about free speech – we care deeply about freedom in general… and so this completely shocked me,’ she said.
The commentator also touched on hot-button issues in Australia, including immigration and the transition to renewable energy.
Owens supported Liberal Party leader Peter Dutton’s calls to block immigration from Gaza out of fears of welcoming Hamas supporters into the country.
‘Why should we have to accept refugees?’ she asked, adding that countries shouldn’t be made to ‘feel bad’ about denying immigrants.
‘For some reason the West, it has become a dumping ground,’ she said.
‘We have an identity, and it’s good to have an identity, and it’s so wrong to routinely try to make people feel bad about wanting to recognise their own countries.’
She also described green energy as a ‘push to further enslave humanity’, claiming those pushing for the transition aren’t committing to the same goals.
‘They can see how our lives are increasingly just becoming more difficult, as they’re telling us that we need to aspire to the sorts of things that they’re not aspiring to,’ Ms Owens said.
‘I believe in people knowing how to live off of the land, how to grow their own food. I believe that’s your only guard against a totalitarian state is being able to take care of yourself and being resourceful with your own neighbours.’
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