WELLINGTON, New Zealand (LifeSiteNews) — Political commentator and Catholic convert Candace Owens has been barred from entering New Zealand, less than a month after being barred from Australia.
According to a November 28 report by the Associated Press, New Zealand officials have denied Candace Owens’ “Entertainers Work Visa” because she was banned from Australia in October.
According to USA Today, the decision was issued November 19 in accordance with a rule barring applicants from receiving a visa if “they have been excluded from another country.”
In October, Owens’ speaking tour in Australia was canceled after the country’s top immigration officer, Tony Burke, refused to approve her visa application.
“Candace Owens has the capacity to incite discord in almost every direction,” Burke claimed, pointing to what he implied were previous anti-Semitic remarks made by Owens.
Burke further accused Owens of “downplaying the impact of the Holocaust” and claiming “that Muslims started slavery.”
“Australia’s national interest is best served when Candace Owens is somewhere else,” he remarked.
Burke seems to have been motivated to block Owens after Jewish groups expressed outrage this summer over her tour. Owens, who has been critical of the Israeli government’s brutal destruction of Gaza, had previously taken on degenerate U.S.-based Rabbi Shmuley Boteach on social media and television.
Owens was scheduled to appear in Auckland (New Zealand), Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane, and Adelaide to discuss topics such as free speech and “why Christ really is king,” among other subjects liberals disdain.
Owens’ visa denial is not the first time a non-Australian has been kept out of the country. Tennis legend Novak Djokovic was not only prevented from playing in the Australian Open in 2022 because he had not received the experimental COVID shot but was deported after he had landed. In a twist of irony, he won the tournament just one year later.
Following the news of her ban from Australia, LifeSiteNews launched a LifePetition, calling on Burke to life the ban. The petition has since received over 30,000 signatures and been presented to Australia’s Parliament.
“I want to shout out the Australians because they are not taking me banned sitting down,” Owens declared on her Candace show in November.
“They have started a petition,” she continued. “… They’re saying they’re going to drop it off at Tony Burke’s office. It just makes me so happy to know that people are fighting for free speech.”