Candace Owens: Chris Penk reverses Immigration NZ’s visa denial for controversial US commentator
- Associate Minister Chris Penk has overturned the initial Immigration New Zealand visa denial for controversial commentator Candace Owens.
- Owens’ visa was denied last month following the cancellation of her Australian work visa.
- Holocaust Centre chairwoman Deborah Hart expressed concern Owens could further stoke anti-Semitism in New Zealand.
Thank Chris the adults are in the room.
I’m a big fan of the Penk, he is funny, he is clever and he is probably the only reason you would ever vote National.
He understands the importance of free speech as a value that has to be protected.
Banning Candace because Australia had banned her was always a pathetic reason to ban her.
Sure, she’s an alt right hate grifter and we all have the right to counter protest her speaking, but banning her because she has said some crazy shit is the way to fuel and fan these grifters.
Free speech matters, it always has and when the State stops someone from entering the country to speak, it has to be for a very good reason.
Penk made the right call and we should all congratulate him for that and be grateful there is a rational voice inside the Government.
Young Labour should never have called for her to be banned, the Left should champion free speech rather than allow right wing front groups like the FSU claim the philosophical territory from us.
We are the Left, we should never fear argument and debate and we sure as Christ shouldn’t attempt to censor it!
In an age of disinformation, misinformation and apathy, our democracy needs engaged citizens like never before.
New Zealand is lucky enough to be a democracy, and while our debate must be fierce and unapologetic, we fight with our words, our ideas and our minds. We never harass, never intimidate and we never use physical violence.
We are blessed to be a democracy and the peaceful transfer of power alongside free speech are values worth fighting for in a polarized social media hate algoreythm hell scape.
Thanks Elon.
A toast fellow citizens to our political culture and long may we debate it!
To Democracy – we need to be kinder to individuals and far crueller to corporations.
Let Candace speak and let us decry her nonsense.
Our Democracy is weakened when we censor free speech, we are a bigger people than that.
Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice – please donate here.
Bomber, I don’t agree with your comments, she should not be coming. The issue has split the Jewish community and there is enough Anti semitic activity in NZ without her coming and encouraging more.
Free speech is only free speech is you don’t mention the word Genocide with this lot and that’s what scares people like Deborah Hart.
Candace Owens is a key member of the movement that John Key referenced after Trumps election win.
She will be an important additional voice in the anti-Māori agenda being rolled out by the government. She is against any form of reparation and progressive policies in general and she is exceptionally confident, eloquent and articulate. Now wonder National want her in the country to add some spice to the big pot of racial dis-harmony that is needed to win in 2026.
Will you “decry her nonsense” when she accuses Israel of genocide?
Her speech is not free speech you have to pay to hear her rubbish, best thing our NZ media could do is ignore her, give her no oxygen as they seem to do with all the problems caused by the CoC
Actually the way to fan these grifters is by way of oxygen. People are forbidden entry into countries because of bad character,that what she is as she just comes to sow seeds of discontent and hate. I don’t agree at all with your evaluation of hate speech being free speech.
Candace Owens criticism of Israel is focused solely on the harm done to Palestinian Christians living in Gaza and the West Bank. Not sure if she voices the same concern for non-Christian Palestinians. Still an an enemy of my enemy etc.
More generally there are anti-war elements on the right the intersect with the strong anti-war sentiments on the left.
Who invited Owens, who is paying her, who is organising the visit and giving her a platform? This is paid-for speech funded by political actors with a propagandist mission. This is not the unvarnished, good faith opinion of an ordinary citizen in a democratic polity. When we get teary-eyed about the sanctity of free speech (as we should), it is always that brave ordinary citizen that we have in mind – not paid propagandists.
When the Right has most of the wealth and ownership of most of the platforms, they will use the defence of ‘free speech’ to saturate the world with their messaging using the megaphone of money. They seek not free speech, but the absolute dominance of their speech. We badly need a revision of what true ‘free speech’ actually is. To be free, speech must also be reasonably equally distributed. Time to talk about ‘free and equal’ speech
Very smart understanding of the issue AB.
Apologies but Candace Owens who?