The High Court have unanimously backed a decision by the Australian government to refuse a temporary visa to Candace Owens. American political commentator, author and podcast host Owens was to have conducted a speaking tour to Australia in 2024 with Immigration Minister Tony Burke saying at the time:

“Australia’s national interest is best served when Candace Owens is somewhere else.”

Owens’s lawyers said decision placed an “impermissible burden” on the implied right to freedom of political communication. But the High Court found that Burke’s character test law that was applied, where the person in question would encourage dissension or strife risking harm to the Australian community, was valid.

Owens is currently the subject of a defamation lawsuit put forward by the Macrons, French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron, after Owens stated in her podcast that Brigette used to be a man.