Milo Yiannopoulos' invitation to speak at Australia's Parliament House sparks anger
An Australian senator has courted controversy by inviting far-right commentator Milo Yiannopoulos to speak at Australia's Parliament House next month.
Yiannopoulos, who is set to tour Australia with his "Troll Academy" show, was described by senator David Leyonhjelm as "a thought-provoking commentator, author of the New York Times best-seller Dangerous and self-described cultural libertarian".
In an email sent to colleagues and parliamentary staff, the libertarian politician said the talk on December 5 would be a "very interesting event that is unlikely to repeated", Fairfax Media reported.
A prominent figure of America's "alt-right" movement, Yiannopoulos, 33, is a passionate Donald Trump supporter.
The ultra-conservative commentator, who is British but now lives in the US, had been an incendiary writer for the conservative site Breitbart News, but resigned earlier this year after a video of him apparently endorsing pedophilia resurfaced online.
In brief | Milo Yiannopoulos
A self-proclaimed internet troll, he was banned from Twitter after a vitriolic social media campaign against "Ghostbusters" star Leslie Jones and he has been widely criticised for comments he has made about Muslims, Black Lives Matter activists and feminists.
Leyonhjelm's invitation outraged lawmakers in Canberra, some of whom questioned whether he should even be allowed in the country.
"I question how this man has secured a visa to Australia, let alone access to Parliament House," Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young was quoted as saying.
"It astounds me that a member of our Parliament would roll out the red carpet to a white supremacist and paedophilia apologist."
Janet Rice, another Greens senator, tweeted that she could not attend because she would be "busy stabbing myself in the eye with a fork".
Seriously though, why is Yiannopolous being given a platform in our parliament?
— Janet Rice (@janet_rice) November 23, 2017
Mr Leyonhjelm defended the event. "Milo was already touring Australia and I thought it was a good opportunity to give those in Parliament (MPs, staff and media) a chance to hear from him there and put their questions to him," he said in a statement to Fairfax Media.
"Milo speaks about issues that are of relevance to Australians, such as political correctness, gender identity, freedom of speech."
The talk comes after a series of other scheduled speeches by Yiannopoulos have fallen through amid concerns about security.
Last month, police arrested seven people after scuffles and at least one serious fight broke out between protesters and people attending a speech by Yiannopoulos at a Southern California college.
In February, UC Berkeley police cancelled Yiannopoulos' scheduled speech on campus just before it was to begin, citing safety concerns.
Last year, he was barred from speaking at his former grammar school in the UK after the Department for Education raised concerns about security and potential "reputational issues".
