Copyright (c) 1997 - Ingrid A. Rimland
"Presenter: Prime Minister John Howard has been confronted by banned Nazi historian David Irving at a business conference. Mr Irving, who has been banned from entering Australia due to his writings on the Holocaust, asked the PM whether Australia is suppressing free speech by refusing him a visitors' visa.
Reporter Fleur Bitcon: The theme of the Prime Minister's speech to the Commonwealth Business Forum was globalisation, breaking down the barriers to trade, Mr Howard calling for new world talks.
Howard: Australia' view is that a new global round could and should be launched at the end of this century.
Bitcon: But in the crowd at the international forum, Nazi historian David Irving wanted to talk about barriers of a different kind, trying to embarrass Mr Howard about his government's refusal to let the author into Australia.
Irving: Would you say a word about Australia's record into the suppression of free speech of your country of which of course I am a victim?
Bitcon: Jewish leaders have accused Mr Irving of being pro-Nazi. Mr Howard told him why his government has twice banned him from coming to Australia.
Howard: ". . . reasons that relate in part, as you know, to some of the views you have expressed about matters which we believe, if propagated in Australia, WOULD NOT BE IN THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL INTEREST. (emphasis added)
Irving: [outside the meeting] I've not been kept out of Australia because of my views on Jews. I've been kept out of Australia because of the Jews' views about me."
(Fleur Bitcon National Nine News, Edinburgh.)Thought for the Day:
"It was hell finding this site! Being shoved off on all kinds of, shall we say, non-truth sites!"
(A ZGram reader, trying to log on to the Zundelsite)