Milo Yiannopoulos will now be allowed to visit Australia

Australia has made a U-turn on banning gay right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos.

The government’s Department of Home Affairs denied Yiannopoulos’ visa application based on character grounds on Wednesday (6 March).

But, immigration minister David Coleman this weekend personally reversed the decision.

It came amid a backlash from conservative media and some members of parliaments, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Pauline Hanson of Australia’s nationalist, right-wing, populist political party One Nation, had objected to the ban.

‘By refusing them [Yiannopoulos and British far-right figure Tommy Robinson] entry into Australia this gutless government is validating the left’s use of violence to silence people’ Hanson wrote on Facebook.

The department has said it had the power to block entry if it feared a person would ‘incite discord in the Australian community or in a segment of that community’.

‘WE WON’ Yiannopoulos, who is known for comments against LGBT people and ethnic minorities, wrote on Facebook.

Australia and Milo Yiannopoulos

Labor Party MP Shayne Neumann denounced the decision. ‘It is clear Milo Yiannopoulos has no place in Australia’ he wrote on Twitter.

Why on earth do the Liberals want to allow someone into Australia who has a proven track record of promoting protests, inciting hate speech, and vilifying parts of the community?

It is clear Milo Yiannopoulos has no place in Australia. pic.twitter.com/WFPp1Lyb4A

— Shayne Neumann (@ShayneNeumannMP) March 9, 2019

Home Affairs previously cited Yiannopoulos’ previous tour as justification for the ban.

What’s more, in Melbourne in 2017, scuffles at a Yiannopoulos event injured five police officers.

The far-right speaker has still not paid the US$35,000 police bill for the event.

Yiannopoulos and conservative speak Ann Coulter had arranged a speaking tour starting in December 2018. But, they canceled it in October.

Yiannopoulos also faced massive protests in Australia when he visited in 2017.

Premier of Western Australia Mark McGowan banned him from speaking in public buildings.

Twitter and PayPal have previously both blocked Yiannopoulos for hate speech.

In December last year, the Guardian revealed the Donald Trump fan was US$2 million in debt.

The paper said Yiannopoulos’ former Australian tour promoters gathered documents revealing his finances.

But, Yiannopoulos later claimed the figure was US$4 million.