October 15, 2025 • 12 mins
The highest court in Australia has upheld a decision preventing far-right U.S. commentator Candace Owens from entering the country. Owens was planning a multi-city speaking tour when her visa was blocked by Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke last year.
At the time, Burke said Owens has the power to “incite discord in almost every direction,” and that her tour would not be in Australia’s best interest. She launched a legal challenge, but Owens’ visa appeal was dismissed in a judgment handed down on Wednesday.
Today, we're unpacking who Owens is, why the Government blocked her entry, and what this week’s High Court decision means.
Hosts: Emma Gillespie and Billi FitzSimons
Producer: Orla Maher
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Already and this is the Daily This is the Daily
ohs oh, now it makes sense.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Thursday,
the sixteenth of October.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
I'm Emma Gillespie, I'm Billy FitzSimons.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
The Highest Court in Australia has upheld the decision to
prevent the far right US commentator Candae Owens from entering
the country. Owens was planning a multi city speaking tour
when her visa was blocked by the Home Affairs Minister
Tony Burke last year.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Now.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
At the time, Burke said that Owens has the power
to incite discord in almost every direction and that her
tour would not be in Australia's best interest. She launched
a legal challenge against that, but Owen's visa appeal was
dismissed in a judgment handed down on Wednesday. Today, we
are going to unpack who Owens is, why the government
(00:58):
didn't want it to come here, and what this week's
decision means.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
And this was a huge story yesterday that Candace Owens
will not be able to enter Australia. We know that
the High Court decision is final now for anyone not
familiar what do we need to know about Candace Owens
and who she is?
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Yes? So, Candace Owens is a thirty five year old
American political commentator and media personality. She's best known, though,
for her far right views. She is a far right influencer,
a long time Trump supporter. And I think it's also
really important to highlight how popular she is. She has
(01:39):
a massive following, which looks like seven point two million
followers on x six million Instagram followers and nearly five
and a half million YouTube subscribers. She also hosts a
popular podcast called The Candace Owens Show. And she has
been this really prominent voice in conservative media probably for
(02:00):
the better part of a decade. Twenty seventeen is when
she first kind of started to become prominent. And during
the last eight or so years, she has made headlines
for many reasons, a lot of them centered around controversy.
She's been accused of promoting harmful conspiracy theories. She's been
accused of being anti Semitic, islamophobic, anti trans A website
(02:23):
promoting her life speaking tour, though, describes Owens as unwavering
and unfiltered.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
And you just mentioned this speaking tour. Is that why
she had planned to come to Australia as part of
that tour.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Exactly Owens was scheduled to come here. Last year, she
announced this speaking tour with shows planned in lots of
major cities including Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth. The tour
was promoted as this kind of opportunity for her Aussie
fans to get up close to hear her views on politics, culture,
current affairs. You know, a very kind of typical in
(02:58):
conversation with sort of event that you would expect. Now,
tickets were already on sale when in October last year
the Federal government actually intervened and blocked Owen's visa application
to stop her from going ahead with those dates.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
That was massive news when it happened. Remind us what
the reason for that blocking was.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
So under Australian law, the Home Affairs Minister here, who
is Tony Burke at the moment, that person has the
power to refuse a person of visa if they think
that their presence in Australia would be contrary to the
national interest.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
This reminds me of when Novak Djokovic, one of the
best tennis players in the world, was blocked from coming
to Australia for the Australian Open because of his vaccination opinions.
It's very similar because it was in that case that
the Home Affairs Minister at the time also blocked.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
His entry exactly. So as Home Affairs Minister, that person
has really kind of broad powers to intervene if they
think a prominent person is going to come to Australia
and potentially incite harmful views. So the government's position when
it made this announcement last year in October was that
if it allowed Candace Owens to come here, that she
(04:10):
would incite this kind of disharmony within the community. And
Burke specifically said, quote Australia's national interest is best served
when Candace Owens is somewhere else.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
What are some of the examples of things that she
has said That is what the Home Affairs Minister is
referring to.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Yees. So Owens was actually fired from a right wing
publication in the US called The Daily Wire. You may
have heard of this was big news. Early last year.
She made a series of statements that were widely condemned
as anti Semitic. She shared posts questioning established facts about
Nazi Germany she made comments downplaying the Holocaust, and she
(04:49):
also has promoted conspiracy theories, including claims that Muslim communities
in Australia are imposing Islamic law here. So these are
the sort of st statements that kind of raised concerns
with the Federal government with Minister Burke about potential harms,
the damage and disruption to social cohesion that could arise
(05:11):
if Candice Owens was given a platform in Australia to
directly address local audiences.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Right, so, it was comments like those that led the
Home Affairs Minister to block her entry to Australia and
presuming she appealed that decision, and that's why it then
went to the High Court exactly. So.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
After Burke refused her visa, Owens launched a legal challenge
arguing that the decision was unlawful and that it should
be overturned. And that case went through the court system,
eventually reaching the highest court, the High Court, where there
was an appeal heard this week.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
And what were her arguments in the appeal as to
why she should be let in.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Yes, so, Owen's legal team had argued that Burke's decision
was a breach of Australia's commitments to freedom of expression,
and that Burke didn't properly consider all relevant factors when
making his decisions. So, for example, court documents show Owen's
lawyers claimed the minister assumed her presence would cause conflict
(06:09):
rather than actually weighing up where the hostilities would really occur.
They argued that the decision to reject her visa was
based only on Owen's past statements, ignoring that she might
behave differently in Australia or might avoid certain topics here.
Owen's team also argued that Burke didn't think about the
fact she'd only be in Australia temporarily about a week,
(06:31):
or consider that her speaking events would be at private
venues with people who had specifically chosen and paid to attend.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
And did the government's position remain that they still thought
she's too controversial she could incite potentially violence here.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Yes, so the Government maintained that position, and Burke's position
was that he was acting within his powers as Home
Affairs Minister, so the Migration Act gives him those powers,
and the Government continued to argue that his decision to
block her visa was lawful Specifically, they argued that protecting
social cohesion and preventing potential vilification of groups within Australia
(07:08):
justified the visa refusal. They said it was reasonable to
conclude that someone like Owens, who has repeatedly made divisive statements,
would likely continue to do so if she came out
here for this tour. Interestingly, free speech doesn't guarantee entry
to Australia.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
I was going to say, when Candice Owens claimed freedom
of expression, that's super interesting because obviously she's coming from
the US, where freedom of speech is a right for
those in the country, but in Australia we don't have
it the exact same way.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Exactly. It's not an explicit right. The Australian government does
have an obligation to kind of balance free speech considerations,
but in its argument against Owen's appeal, the government essentially
said that it considers free speech against other important interests
like social cohesion when determining who can enter the country,
(07:57):
and that ultimately it does have the power to prayorities
potential risks to social cohesion over that freedom of expression argument.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Yeah, so interesting. So those are the arguments on either side. Yesterday,
the High court handed down its decision. What did they rule?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
So all seven judges were unanimous. They agreed that Tony
Burke's decision to refuse Owen's visa was lawful, so her
appeal was rejected yesterday. On the question of whether Owens
might change her views or tone in Australia, the court
said that Burke wasn't required to assume that she would
do that. The judges said it was reasonable for the
(08:35):
Home Affairs Minister to base his decision on what she's
said in the past, rather than guessing what she might
say in the future. And the court also made clear
that the minister's power to refuse visas on the grounds
of national interests is quite a broad power. So you
know that essentially means or what the court explained is
that it's not up to the legal system to second
(08:56):
guess these kinds of decisions unless there is a clear
legal error and that the Minister was acting within his
powers to protect the Australian community.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Have we heard from Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke since
that judgment was handed down?
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Yes So after we got that judgment yesterday, we reached
out to the Home Affairs Minister who told TDA quote,
this is a win for social cohesion. Inciting discord might
be the way some people make money, but it's not
welcome in Australia.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Have there been any other responses from any other groups
affected by this?
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Yeah, so, as you kind of already touched on Billy,
this case, since it first emerged over a year ago,
has sparked this ongoing discussion about free speech and government power.
Who should be allowed to visit Australia, And I think
we are seeing more and more of these conversations as
kind of Australia and American culture blends, and there is
(09:49):
this crossover of US politics in US culture, in our
day to day lives. But freedom of expression doesn't mean
foreign nationals have a right to enter Australia. Candace Owans
has argued really heavily about infringements on free speech. But
the conversation that's come out of this finding, I suppose,
is that the visa system here is designed really deliberately
(10:11):
to give the minister powers to limit who can enter
the country. And you know, while the US has its
own protections around free speech, it may have been an
error on Candace Owen's legal team to go so heavily
on that right, which really bluntly just doesn't exist here.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Has Candace Owens said anything, so.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
At the time of recording, we haven't actually heard anything
specifically from Candas Owens about this judgment, but based on
her past comments, you know, we can assume she's not
going to be happy with this decision. I'm sure we'll
hear more about the free speech argument that she put forward.
But for Owens specifically, you know, legally, this is the
end of the road for her legal options to enter Australia.
(10:52):
The High Court is the highest in the country. There's
nowhere else for her to appeal, so she won't be
able to come here for any speaking tour. And I
guess longer term, this decision could play an important role
in how the government handles similar cases in the future.
So you know, I'm sure we'll see plenty more instances
of controversial figures wanting to come to Australia, wanting to
(11:14):
do these kinds of speaking tours, and this will kind
of probably become a precedent for what happens there. It
is worth noting I think that this whole case doesn't
mean the government can block anyone. It disagrees with just
on a whim, the government and the Home Affairs Minister,
you know, do still need to have a reasonable basis
for believing that someone's presence here could be damaging or
(11:36):
contrary to the national interest. But the High Court this
week has made it really clear that it will give
ministers significant leeway in making these assessments. So we'll wait
and see what Owen says and if any of her
contemporaries kind of make similar plans.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Such an interesting story. It was fascinating when it happened
to Novak Djokovic, and now the fact that it's happening
to Candorce Ellen's again, it's just a really interesting story.
And there's all of this debate about censorship and you
know what constitutes, you know, possibly inciting violence. All of
that is just a fascinating discussion.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Exactly, and I'm sure it's not going to be the
last we hear about it. Billy.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Thank you for explaining all of that to us, am pleasure,
and thank you so much for listening to this episode
of The Daily Ods. We'll be back this afternoon with
your evening headlines, but until then, have a great day.
My name is Lily Maddon. And I'm a proud Arunda
Bungelung Chalcutin woman from Gadigol country. The Daily oz acknowledges
(12:33):
that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the
Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres
Strait island and nations. We pay our respects to the
first peoples of these countries, both past and present.
Already and this is the Daily This is the Daily
ohs oh, now it makes sense.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Thursday,
the sixteenth of October.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
I'm Emma Gillespie, I'm Billy FitzSimons.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
The Highest Court in Australia has upheld the decision to
prevent the far right US commentator Candae Owens from entering
the country. Owens was planning a multi city speaking tour
when her visa was blocked by the Home Affairs Minister
Tony Burke last year.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Now.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
At the time, Burke said that Owens has the power
to incite discord in almost every direction and that her
tour would not be in Australia's best interest. She launched
a legal challenge against that, but Owen's visa appeal was
dismissed in a judgment handed down on Wednesday. Today, we
are going to unpack who Owens is, why the government
(00:58):
didn't want it to come here, and what this week's
decision means.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
And this was a huge story yesterday that Candace Owens
will not be able to enter Australia. We know that
the High Court decision is final now for anyone not
familiar what do we need to know about Candace Owens
and who she is?
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Yes? So, Candace Owens is a thirty five year old
American political commentator and media personality. She's best known, though,
for her far right views. She is a far right influencer,
a long time Trump supporter. And I think it's also
really important to highlight how popular she is. She has
(01:39):
a massive following, which looks like seven point two million
followers on x six million Instagram followers and nearly five
and a half million YouTube subscribers. She also hosts a
popular podcast called The Candace Owens Show. And she has
been this really prominent voice in conservative media probably for
(02:00):
the better part of a decade. Twenty seventeen is when
she first kind of started to become prominent. And during
the last eight or so years, she has made headlines
for many reasons, a lot of them centered around controversy.
She's been accused of promoting harmful conspiracy theories. She's been
accused of being anti Semitic, islamophobic, anti trans A website
(02:23):
promoting her life speaking tour, though, describes Owens as unwavering
and unfiltered.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
And you just mentioned this speaking tour. Is that why
she had planned to come to Australia as part of
that tour.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Exactly Owens was scheduled to come here. Last year, she
announced this speaking tour with shows planned in lots of
major cities including Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth. The tour
was promoted as this kind of opportunity for her Aussie
fans to get up close to hear her views on politics, culture,
current affairs. You know, a very kind of typical in
(02:58):
conversation with sort of event that you would expect. Now,
tickets were already on sale when in October last year
the Federal government actually intervened and blocked Owen's visa application
to stop her from going ahead with those dates.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
That was massive news when it happened. Remind us what
the reason for that blocking was.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
So under Australian law, the Home Affairs Minister here, who
is Tony Burke at the moment, that person has the
power to refuse a person of visa if they think
that their presence in Australia would be contrary to the
national interest.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
This reminds me of when Novak Djokovic, one of the
best tennis players in the world, was blocked from coming
to Australia for the Australian Open because of his vaccination opinions.
It's very similar because it was in that case that
the Home Affairs Minister at the time also blocked.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
His entry exactly. So as Home Affairs Minister, that person
has really kind of broad powers to intervene if they
think a prominent person is going to come to Australia
and potentially incite harmful views. So the government's position when
it made this announcement last year in October was that
if it allowed Candace Owens to come here, that she
(04:10):
would incite this kind of disharmony within the community. And
Burke specifically said, quote Australia's national interest is best served
when Candace Owens is somewhere else.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
What are some of the examples of things that she
has said That is what the Home Affairs Minister is
referring to.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Yees. So Owens was actually fired from a right wing
publication in the US called The Daily Wire. You may
have heard of this was big news. Early last year.
She made a series of statements that were widely condemned
as anti Semitic. She shared posts questioning established facts about
Nazi Germany she made comments downplaying the Holocaust, and she
(04:49):
also has promoted conspiracy theories, including claims that Muslim communities
in Australia are imposing Islamic law here. So these are
the sort of st statements that kind of raised concerns
with the Federal government with Minister Burke about potential harms,
the damage and disruption to social cohesion that could arise
(05:11):
if Candice Owens was given a platform in Australia to
directly address local audiences.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Right, so, it was comments like those that led the
Home Affairs Minister to block her entry to Australia and
presuming she appealed that decision, and that's why it then
went to the High Court exactly. So.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
After Burke refused her visa, Owens launched a legal challenge
arguing that the decision was unlawful and that it should
be overturned. And that case went through the court system,
eventually reaching the highest court, the High Court, where there
was an appeal heard this week.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
And what were her arguments in the appeal as to
why she should be let in.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Yes, so, Owen's legal team had argued that Burke's decision
was a breach of Australia's commitments to freedom of expression,
and that Burke didn't properly consider all relevant factors when
making his decisions. So, for example, court documents show Owen's
lawyers claimed the minister assumed her presence would cause conflict
(06:09):
rather than actually weighing up where the hostilities would really occur.
They argued that the decision to reject her visa was
based only on Owen's past statements, ignoring that she might
behave differently in Australia or might avoid certain topics here.
Owen's team also argued that Burke didn't think about the
fact she'd only be in Australia temporarily about a week,
(06:31):
or consider that her speaking events would be at private
venues with people who had specifically chosen and paid to attend.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
And did the government's position remain that they still thought
she's too controversial she could incite potentially violence here.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Yes, so the Government maintained that position, and Burke's position
was that he was acting within his powers as Home
Affairs Minister, so the Migration Act gives him those powers,
and the Government continued to argue that his decision to
block her visa was lawful Specifically, they argued that protecting
social cohesion and preventing potential vilification of groups within Australia
(07:08):
justified the visa refusal. They said it was reasonable to
conclude that someone like Owens, who has repeatedly made divisive statements,
would likely continue to do so if she came out
here for this tour. Interestingly, free speech doesn't guarantee entry
to Australia.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
I was going to say, when Candice Owens claimed freedom
of expression, that's super interesting because obviously she's coming from
the US, where freedom of speech is a right for
those in the country, but in Australia we don't have
it the exact same way.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Exactly. It's not an explicit right. The Australian government does
have an obligation to kind of balance free speech considerations,
but in its argument against Owen's appeal, the government essentially
said that it considers free speech against other important interests
like social cohesion when determining who can enter the country,
(07:57):
and that ultimately it does have the power to prayorities
potential risks to social cohesion over that freedom of expression argument.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Yeah, so interesting. So those are the arguments on either side. Yesterday,
the High court handed down its decision. What did they rule?
Speaker 2 (08:14):
So all seven judges were unanimous. They agreed that Tony
Burke's decision to refuse Owen's visa was lawful, so her
appeal was rejected yesterday. On the question of whether Owens
might change her views or tone in Australia, the court
said that Burke wasn't required to assume that she would
do that. The judges said it was reasonable for the
(08:35):
Home Affairs Minister to base his decision on what she's
said in the past, rather than guessing what she might
say in the future. And the court also made clear
that the minister's power to refuse visas on the grounds
of national interests is quite a broad power. So you
know that essentially means or what the court explained is
that it's not up to the legal system to second
(08:56):
guess these kinds of decisions unless there is a clear
legal error and that the Minister was acting within his
powers to protect the Australian community.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Have we heard from Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke since
that judgment was handed down?
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Yes So after we got that judgment yesterday, we reached
out to the Home Affairs Minister who told TDA quote,
this is a win for social cohesion. Inciting discord might
be the way some people make money, but it's not
welcome in Australia.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Have there been any other responses from any other groups
affected by this?
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Yeah, so, as you kind of already touched on Billy,
this case, since it first emerged over a year ago,
has sparked this ongoing discussion about free speech and government power.
Who should be allowed to visit Australia, And I think
we are seeing more and more of these conversations as
kind of Australia and American culture blends, and there is
(09:49):
this crossover of US politics in US culture, in our
day to day lives. But freedom of expression doesn't mean
foreign nationals have a right to enter Australia. Candace Owans
has argued really heavily about infringements on free speech. But
the conversation that's come out of this finding, I suppose,
is that the visa system here is designed really deliberately
(10:11):
to give the minister powers to limit who can enter
the country. And you know, while the US has its
own protections around free speech, it may have been an
error on Candace Owen's legal team to go so heavily
on that right, which really bluntly just doesn't exist here.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Has Candace Owens said anything, so.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
At the time of recording, we haven't actually heard anything
specifically from Candas Owens about this judgment, but based on
her past comments, you know, we can assume she's not
going to be happy with this decision. I'm sure we'll
hear more about the free speech argument that she put forward.
But for Owens specifically, you know, legally, this is the
end of the road for her legal options to enter Australia.
(10:52):
The High Court is the highest in the country. There's
nowhere else for her to appeal, so she won't be
able to come here for any speaking tour. And I
guess longer term, this decision could play an important role
in how the government handles similar cases in the future.
So you know, I'm sure we'll see plenty more instances
of controversial figures wanting to come to Australia, wanting to
(11:14):
do these kinds of speaking tours, and this will kind
of probably become a precedent for what happens there. It
is worth noting I think that this whole case doesn't
mean the government can block anyone. It disagrees with just
on a whim, the government and the Home Affairs Minister,
you know, do still need to have a reasonable basis
for believing that someone's presence here could be damaging or
(11:36):
contrary to the national interest. But the High Court this
week has made it really clear that it will give
ministers significant leeway in making these assessments. So we'll wait
and see what Owen says and if any of her
contemporaries kind of make similar plans.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Such an interesting story. It was fascinating when it happened
to Novak Djokovic, and now the fact that it's happening
to Candorce Ellen's again, it's just a really interesting story.
And there's all of this debate about censorship and you
know what constitutes, you know, possibly inciting violence. All of
that is just a fascinating discussion.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Exactly, and I'm sure it's not going to be the
last we hear about it. Billy.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Thank you for explaining all of that to us, am pleasure,
and thank you so much for listening to this episode
of The Daily Ods. We'll be back this afternoon with
your evening headlines, but until then, have a great day.
My name is Lily Maddon. And I'm a proud Arunda
Bungelung Chalcutin woman from Gadigol country. The Daily oz acknowledges
(12:33):
that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the
Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres
Strait island and nations. We pay our respects to the
first peoples of these countries, both past and present.
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