Thank you for supporting the petition ‘No Violent Extremism. Gavin McInnes Should Not be Allowed into Australia’. Since starting the petition just over a week ago, it has received almost 50,000 signatures, there has been national media coverage, and formal requests from Australian politicians to cancel McInnes' visa. But the Immigration Minister is yet to respond or even make comment. 

Given it has been a little over a week, I thought it might be useful to have a recap on the key points of the campaign:

Your support of this petition has already lead to the November event being postponed until December and Tommy Robinson has been added to the bill for the show. Robinson is the former leader of the far-right English Defence League and established the anti-Islam organisation Pegida UK.

Robinson has a series of convictions for offences including assault, drug possession and public order offences. The addition of Robinson to the event is likely an attempt to paint the criticism of McInnes’s tour as broad opposition to the far-right, allowing his supporters to keep arguing that this is about free speech rather than about the incitement of violence.

Within 24 hours of this petition going online, Labor Shadow Immigration Minister, Shayne Neumann, sent a letter to the Government, asking for McInnes to be denied a visa: "Proud Boys is a far-right organisation which admits only men as members and promotes political violence," the letter reads. "Gavin McInnes has repeatedly and publicly advocated for violence against women and has pledged to "assassinate" his enemies."

On Friday, Green leader Richard Di Natale also wrote to the Government, urging them to cancel the visas of McInnes and Robinson: "There is no place for hate speech in Australia. Greens support the right for people to express their views & protest peacefully, but this can’t be at the expense of other human rights." 

Meanwhile, the opposition to McInnes has moved beyond a simple 'left-wing vs right-wing' debate, with criticism of the Proud Boys and their tactics coming from typically conservative publications like the Herald Sun ("Why hate preacher Gavin McInnes must be banned from entering Australia"), and the National Review ("The Poisonous Allure of Right-Wing Violence").

Although this shows there is a broad opposition to McInnes being granted a platform, the Minister for Immigration, David Coleman, has so far ignored the calls for McInnes to be denied a visa.

Please continue to share this petition to make sure the Government takes notice.

Thank you, 

Nyadol Nyuon