The decision to grant Dutch anti-Islamic MP Geert Wilders a visa to Australia was cleared by the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, after being referred up by delegates in his department.
Wilders’s visa application was approved on Thursday night. The founder of the Dutch Party for Freedom had been invited to attend the launch of an Australian party modelled on his own, the Australian Liberty Alliance.
ALA’s president, Debbie Robinson, told Guardian Australia the Department of Immigration and Border Protection had been dragging its feet in issuing the visa, but had offered reassurances in August Wilders would be allowed into the country.
On Friday, Dutton said he had had a hand in the ultimate decision to grant the visa.
“There is a decision made by the delegate within the department,” he told reporters in Canberra. “In some circumstances, including in relation to this matter, I was consulted in relation to this visa. I was happy to take the advice from the delegate, which was to issue the visa.”
Wilders’s application to come to Australia in 2012 stalled under the then Labor government, but a visa was ultimately granted. Wilders toured Australia in early 2013.
Last week, the department cancelled the visa of American anti-abortion campaigner Troy Newman on concerns about community safety and good order.
The high court hearing to determine whether Newman would be deported specifically noted concerns the campaigner’s presence in Australia could lead to violent protests like those seen in the United States.
Dutton brushed aside concerns Wilders’s visit to Australia would stir up similar protests, saying delegates from his department take those issues into account.
“They will have a look at the whole history. They will do what is in our best national interest in terms of granting or denying a visa. That is the decision that was made,” the immigration minister said.
Robinson told Guardian Australia she had faith in the security arrangements in place for Wilders’s visit, pointing to the fact he has personal security with him at all times, and ALA will not make public where the launch will take place.
The ALA launch, in Perth on 20 October, is expected to draw up to 200 people, Robinson said.
She welcomed Dutton’s intervention in the visa case, telling Guardian Australia it was a “win for freedom of speech in this country”.
But she questioned why the decision was not made sooner.
“I wonder why it took so long for an elected official to be granted a visa to Australia,” Robinson said.
Wilders himself announced the visa decision on Twitter.
Australian visa has been granted! Look forward visiting Perth for launch new party: Australian Liberty Alliance! pic.twitter.com/O5IHNeUIj5
— Geert Wilders (@geertwilderspvv) October 8, 2015
Labor’s spokeswoman on citizenship, Michelle Rowland, warned against giving Wilders’s “fringe” views more airtime than they deserve.
“We should ensure his utterances are challenged and he is given the level of exposure he deserves, and that is very little,” Rowland said. “We all have a responsibility in that, including the media.”
“Geert Wilders is a fringe-dweller and does not speak for mainstream Australia,” she said. “The Labor party has no time for him.”
Dutton told reporters the government has increased the number of visas cancelled in recent times, specifically for those convicted of crimes.
Criminals awaiting deportation have caused the population of Australia’s immigration detention facilities to “change dramatically”, Dutton said.
Of the 285 detainees on Christmas Island, 125 have had their Australian visas cancelled. A further 57 were visa overstayers, 96 were asylum seekers who arrived by boat, and five asylum seekers who arrived by plane.
The immigration minister said detainees were segregated in the centre according to the risk they posed, but said the Christmas Island facility will eventually house fewer non-violent asylum seekers.
“My judgement is that the population on Christmas Island detention centre will include, increasingly, people with significant criminal history,” he said.
“Like any detention centre, people are segregated in different units and the judgements are made by the professionals about the threat level from individuals, about whether or not they are then accommodated with other people of a lower risk,” Dutton said. “They are professional judgements that the people make who are running the centres.”
