Candace Owens denied entry into Australia over fear she'd incite 'violent or radical action'

Conservative pundit Candace Owens still won't be able to enter Australia and now must cover the government's legal costs after losing her appeal over a denied travel visa.

The far-right podcast host originally intended to enter the country in October, 2024, until her visa application was denied by Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, who declared that Owens had failed the "character test" required for entry. He cited her “extremist and inflammatory comments towards Muslim, Black, Jewish and LGBTQIA+ communities which generate controversy and hatred."

Owens appealed the decision, claiming that the rejection infringed on her right to free speech. Unlike the United States, Australia does not have a constitutional or statutory law protecting speech, with the one exception that political speech is protected from criminal prosecution.

The nation's High Court rejected Owens' appeal Wednesday, agreeing with Burke's assessment that she could incite "increased hostility and violent or radical action." Judges Stephen Gageler, Michelle Gordon, and Robert Beech-Jones wrote in a unanimous opinion that "the implied freedom [of speech] is not a ‘personal right,’ is not unlimited and is not absolute."

"In the event that the person were allowed to enter or to remain in Australia, there is a risk that the person would stir up or encourage dissension or strife in the Australian community, or a segment of that community, of a kind or to a degree that is harmful to that community or segment," they continued.

Owens has made several inflammatory comments in the past few years, from falsely claiming that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is a “homosexual actor” to calling the LGBTQ+ community a “sexual plague” following a school shooting in Perry, Iowa. She is currently being sued for defamation by Brigitte Macron, the wife of French President Emmanuel Macron, for falsely claiming that Brigitte secretly identifies as transgender and is really the same person as her brother, Jean-Michel Trogneux.