From the West Australian:

Party leader’s sponsors demand visa equality
NICK BUTTERLY and ANDREW PROBYN

Supporters of far-Right British political leader Nick Griffin are demanding to know why he could be barred from entering Australia when US gangster rap stars with criminal convictions have been given visas to perform here.

As revealed in The West Australian yesterday, Mr Griffin, the leader of the British National Party, has been red-flagged by the Immigration Department and is not likely to be granted a visa to come to Australia on a planned speaking tour next month.

Islamic and Jewish groups are urging Immigration Minister Chris Evans to deny Mr Griffin a visa, saying that his presence in Australia could incite prejudice and violence against ethnic groups.

Darrin Hodges, the NSW chairman of the Australian Protectionist Party which is sponsoring Mr Griffin’s speaking tour on the topic of “demographic genocide”, said the BNP was a legitimate and lawful British political party and it would be “hysterical nonsense” to bar his entry. “The Immigration Department doesn’t seem to have any qualms in bringing in so-called rappers with extensive criminal and violent records, but here we have a leader of a legitimate political party who is potentially not allowed in,” Mr Hodges said, referring to recent decisions to allow tours by American hip hop stars Snoop Dog and 50 Cent.

Mr Griffin was acquitted by a jury in Leeds in England in 2006 of charges of incitement to racial hatred.

Moderate WA Liberal MP Judi Moylan said Mr Griffin should not be allowed entry, just as the Keating government blocked Holocaust denier David Irving from getting a visa in 1994.

“Generally speaking, I am for free speech but where you have a deliberate effort to whip up racial hatred and racial tension, I don’t think we should have these people in the country,” Ms Moylan said.

“I would not support him getting a visa as I wouldn’t Irving.” Lawyer and civil rights campaigner Terry O’Gorman said he strongly disagreed with the policies of the BNP but Mr Griffin represented a legitimate party and should be allowed to travel to Australia in the interests of free speech.

“While I personally find the views of that party obnoxious, they are a registered political party in the UK and it’s just an absurdity that their leader should be stopped from coming and speaking to like-minded people here,” he said. “Freedom of speech means that you have to put up with speeches that you don’t like.” Mr Hodges was angry that a 12,000-name membership list of the BNP had been leaked on the internet this week.

The list, which gives member’s phone numbers and home and email addresses, includes the names of many Australians, some of them from WA.

Mr Hodges said Mr Griffin was to speak at private, invitation-only gatherings in Sydney and Melbourne. He said the APP hoped to learn how to grow from a grassroots level as the BNP had.

He said the APP wanted Australia to place a greater emphasis on European migration.

“Bringing in people from distinctly alien cultures is not really working out and we have seen in Europe how that is not working,” he said.

Senator Evans has said that Mr Griffin, like all non-citizens, would have to pass a character test to get into the country.