20/07/2021
Whether Katie Hopkins was invited here by Channel Seven is largely a moot point. At the end of the day she would not have been allowed to come here without a travel exemption and a valid visa for entry. Both of these are issued by the Dept of Home Affairs. Ergo, the department and therefore the government had some involvement in the granting of permission to this utter racist to come to Australia.
As for her racism, there are numerous examples of her hatred for anything Non Anglo documented all over the World Wide Web. She wears a mantle of having been banned from Twitter for “abuse and hateful conduct”. She also was regularly retweeted by the former President of the United States Donald Trump (himself, a “ban-ee” from Twitter!).
I know from bitter personal experience that the travel exemption in particular is extremely tightly controlled. There is no possible way for Ms Hopkins to have “snuck in” without approval from the relevant ministry.
Yes, I have no sympathy for Channel Seven receiving the appropriate level of opprobrium for their actions in appointing her to the Big Brother Celebrity Household. However, we must reserve some of that angst towards the department and the Minister for granting both a travel exemption and a visa to allow her entry into this country.
Yours faithfully
Suresh Rajan