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January 23, 2001

Irving refused entry to Australia -- again

Bernard Freedman

IMMIGRATION Minister Philip Ruddock has refused Holocaust denier David Irving entry to Australia for a third time, citing evidence of Irvings past and present criminal conduct and past and present general conduct".

David Irving comments: THIS article contains so many lies and inaccuracies that I shall not bother to correct them.    Website readers who have studied our files on the Australia actions and the problems in Germany and Canada know precisely what happened ... and whose money was behind the campaign to silence and smear me. . Related file: Our dossier on some of the origins of anti-Semitism

Last week, a year after the discredited historian applied for a tourist visa to promote his book Churchill's War, Australia House in London told him he had been refused a visa.

As in 1993 and 1996, Irving failed the Migration Act character test which gives the immigration minister a wide range of reasons to reject a visa application.

These include a significant risk that he would vilify or incite discord in the Australian community or a segment of the community, or be liable to become involved in disruptive activities and violence.

Immigration department advice to Ruddock said Irving's behaviour demonstrated "a defiance and contempt for the laws of some of the countries he visited", conduct serious enough to see him deported.

"It is difficult to determine that Irving wouldn't behave similarly whilst in Australia."

Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Jeremy Jones said the minister's decision demonstrated there had been no change in Irving's circumstances since he was first refused a visa.

"lf anything, he has shown himself to be the sort of character justifying past refusals of a visa," Jones said.

"Australian Federal, State and Territory anti-racism laws are consistent with the law which brought about his criminal conviction in Germany."

In 1992 a German court convicted and fined Irving heavily for defaming the memory of the dead, an offence punishable under German law by two years in jail.

Canada deported Irving in 1992 for lying to an immigration adjudicator. In 1993 Germany expelled him, saying his presence there infringed "public security" and "public order".

In 1994, a British High Court judge sentenced Irving to three months imprisonment for contempt of the High Court, although he was later released from prison under certain conditions.

In April 2000, Irving lost a libel suit against Penguin Books and author Deborah Lipstadt, whose book, Denying the Holocaust, branded him a racist [website note: this allegation was not made in the book] Holocaust denier.

In his ruling, Judge Charles Gray declared that Irving was "an active Holocaust denier". He called Irving "antisemitic and racist", saying he has "portrayed Hitler in an unwarrantedly favourable light".

This left him with a legal bill of more than $6 million. He also owes the Australian government $35,140 after previous failed appeals.

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