AARON PATRICK: Political commentator Candace Owens’ refused entry to Australia shows limits of free speech

In a crowded and competitive field, Candace Owens is one of America’s most prominent far-right commentators.

Thanks to Australia’s top court, she will not get a chance to share her controversial views with Australians in person.

On Wednesday the High Court of Australia endorsed a decision by Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke to refuse Ms Owens a visa because she could “encourage dissension or strife in the Australian community”.

Although known as Owens Farmer, the YouTube star planned to give paid speeches in Sydney, Perth, Melbourne and Brisbane in January, where she was expected to critique many of the totemic issues of modern political life, including climate change science, pandemic lockdowns and the transgender movement.

But it is her argument that French President Emmanuel Macron’s wife Brigitte was born male - a claim she is being sued over by the Macrons - that propelled Owens into the online stratosphere.

The university dropout has 5.4 million YouTube subscribers on and 6.4 million on Instagram, where she posts slick videos promoting conspiracy theories, including that Jews were behind the assassination of John F Kennedy in 1963 because the US President opposed Israel’s nuclear weapons program. Advertisers on her show in Australia include Hungry Jacks and The Good Guys.

Bipartisan opposition

Given her fringe views, Owens was not welcomed by the Labor or Liberal parties. Mr Burke’s Coalition counterpart at the time, Dan Tehan, supported the Government’s decision to deny her a visa on character grounds.

Among the few groups willing to back her was the Libertarian Party and the Free Speech Union, a small advocacy group. Both argued Owens was relatively harmless and Australians should not be protected from uncomfortable or controversial ideas.

“If the Australian government believes that social cohesion can only be achieved by silencing political commentators, then we have serious cultural problem,” John Ruddick, a Libertarian MP in NSW, said on Wednesday.

Jewish groups were not so sanguine.

Owens is part of a clique of conservatives who downplay the Holocaust and express hostility towards Israel. Human medical experiments conducted by Josef Mengele during World War II did not take place, she has claimed. “Even if you’re the most evil person in the world, that’s a tremendous waste of time and supplies,” she said last year.

Among those who challenged her position was the Melbourne-based Annetta Able, a 101-year-old survivor of Josef Mengele’s laboratory. “I still bear the physical and emotional scars of Mengele’s cruelty,” she said last August.

The Zionist Federation of Australia and other groups lobbied Mr Burke to deny Owens a visa. Ironically, their success has helped Owens play victim to her fans. They see a Jewish conspiracy to shut down her opinions. “They will call you antisemitic but never a liar,” one fan wrote.

Adding to Owen’s popularity is her race. As a Black woman, she is an unexpected advocate of far-right ideology.

The Washington Post referred to her as “the new face of Black conservatism”, providing a useful reminder that political views are separate to race and it may be racist to assume they are not.

Speaking freely

As for freedom of speech, unlike the US, Australians have no explicit constitutional protection for political statements others find offensive.

The High Court, which previously found there is implicit freedom of political communication in the constitution, decided in Wednesday’s judgement that right does not prevent the government refusing entry to foreigners who intend to express controversial political views.

In other words, the right to communicate political opinions is not absolute.

The Americans can hardly complain. In the US, the legal and philosophical home of free speech, voices that challenge authority are being shut down.

On Wednesday, the US State Department said it had revoked visas of people from Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Mexico, Paraguay, and South Africa who mocked or celebrated the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the young conservative leader, on September 10. Tweets can now get you kicked out of America.

Owens was a supporter of Kirk’s. He gave her a job that helped propel her rise to prominence. For better or worse, both have become symbols of an era when democratic governments, on the left and right, restrict speech they consider offensive.