Scott Morrison to Overseas Speakers: Respect Multiculturalism or Else
Yesterday it was leaked to News Corp Australia that Immigration Minister David Coleman had reversed the decision of the Home Affairs Department to block Milo Yiannopoulos from returning to Australia to tour as part of the Deplorables Tour.
This was after it was leaked to Fairfax earlier last week that Milo’s visa application had been rejected on character grounds due to the protests his visit in December 2017 provoked from far-left activists.
Coleman’s overriding of his department’s decision was due to the lobbying of Victorian Liberal MPs Tim Wilson and James Paterson, and criticism from conservative commentators such as Andrew Bolt and Rowan Dean.
The other speakers who are being promoted as part of the Deplorables Tour Gavin McInnes and Tommy Robinson have not at this stage been granted a visa and the tour may be subjected to even further delays.
Labor criticised Coleman’s reversing of Home Affairs’ decision with Labor’s Foreign Affairs spokesperson Penny Wong stating that the Minister should have agreed with his department that Milo visiting Australia was ‘bad idea’ and ‘not good for national cohesion’.
Wong went to to say that Milo’s statements that ‘feminism is cancer’ and ‘Islam is AIDS’ are ideas Australia doesn’t want. She also accused the government of caving into the outrage from conservative commentators and said ‘they were living in a bubble’.
Scott Morrison when asked about the decision to grant Milo a visa stated ‘free speech is important in Australia’ but also issued a warning to Milo and other similar right wing speakers who wish to tour Australia ‘when people come to Australia they are expected to ‘respect Australians, our values, and our multicultural society’.
This is a particularly alarming statement from an alleged conservative Prime Minister. The policy of multiculturalism in Australia is now not allowed to be questioned by anyone, he is essentially agreeing with Labor that national cohesion trumps free speech and open debate.
But this shouldn’t surprise us too much given that multiculturalism is a bi-partisan policy, as illustrated the outrage expressed by both parties during Fraser Anning’s maiden speech in the Senate which saw a handshake from then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten and a hug between Jewish MP Josh Frydenberg and Muslim MP Ed Husic to symbolize unity.
Milo could very well be the last right wing speaker and critic of multiculturalism to be allowed into this country given this warning from Scott Morrison and Labor’s apparent new position to block any speakers who may be offensive from touring Australia
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson when news of the initial Milo ban was leaked said the government was acting as an arm of Antifa, the loose collection of far-left groups who stage the violent and aggressive protests against right wing speakers. With Morrison parroting Antifa’s multiculturalism message, it is a statement which has a ring of truth to it.
