The Australian Liberty Alliance has defended the secrecy surrounding its Tuesday launch, saying it is necessary to ensure the safety of Geert Wilders, a controversial far-right Dutch MP whose party is the inspiration for the new anti-Islamic group.
Wilders is the guest of honour at the ALA launch, which is scheduled to appear at a secret location in Perth, Western Australia. The ALA has registered with the Australian Electoral Commission and plans to put up candidates in the 2016 federal election.
Speaking on ABC radio in Perth on Tuesday, the ALA’s media spokesman, Andrew Horwood, said the secrecy was necessary because “we have to keep this man secure”.
“Mr Geert Wilders has lived under 24 hour police protection for the past 10 years, he had an assassination attempt in Texas earlier this year, and this is just his life,” Horwood said.
“He is critical of the religion of Islam, as many others are around the world, and because of that they have a death sentence on his head and he has just been under police guard for 10 years.”
The anti-racism group United Against Bigotry and Racism has vowed to protest against Wilders’ presence in Australia.
Several venues pulled out of hosting events featuring Wilders when he visited in 2013.
The West Australian premier, Colin Barnett, this week banned state-owned venues from hosting Wilders on his current tour. “I prefer that he didn’t come here, however there is a right to a freedom of speech, so we’re not going to stand in his way or those people who might be organising his visit,” Barnett said.
“However, we would not allow any state government facilities to be used, so he’ll have to find a private venue for what he wants to undertake.
“I’m sure there’s a small element that would support some of his quite radical, and I’d say, discriminatory views, but that’s certainly not the views of the West Australian government and certainly not the views of the vast majority of West Australians.”
Wilders party, the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, won 12% of the vote in the 2012 Dutch general election but has led 13 of the past 16 opinion polls, dating back to August 2015. Horwood suggested he would be the next prime minister of the Netherlands.
Horwood said the ALA “stood for many things” besides its opposition to Islam, naming falling education standards, rising debt and an apparent lack of respect shown to and by individuals in society as among its key concerns.
But the key difference, he said, would be a freedom from the “political correctness” which, he suggested, constrained criticism of Islam in Australia.
He said 80% of people in polling done by the ALA had said that Islam had been bad for Australia. Guardian Australia has not seen a copy of this polling.
“Many people don’t understand the religion of Islam, the foundation of that, why it’s so different, but they do understand that things aren’t quite right,” Horwood said.
“We need to have respectful conversation about it but we need to have honest conversation and find out what it is about this religion that’s causing all the violence and does it really fit with Australian values, and it does not.”
Wilders, a far-right politician who has been banned from entering other countries because of his anti-Islamic stance, was granted a visa to enter Australia.
It is his second visit to the country, after his first visit, slated for late 2012, was delayed until the following year owing to a delay in the issuing of his visa.
