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Irving puts case for visa
by Wendy Caccetta

The West Australian, Friday, 22 March 1996

Lawyers for right-wing British author David Irving told the Full Federal
Court yesterday that he should not be refused entry into Australia just
because he had been deported from two countries and barred from four
others.

In a legal argument that took in the Hell's Angels, adultery and human
rights in China, lawyer Peter Bates made a last-ditch attempt to convince
the three judges that Irving was not an undesirable element.

The author of several revisionist histories, Irving outraged the
international Jewish community with his claims that Hitler did not order
the extermination of the Jews and that the Holocaust was grossly
exaggerated.

Yesterday's Perth hearing was the end of the line in his three-year legal
battle to overturn an Australian Government decision that has barred him
entering Australia for a lecture tour.

In December 1992, Irving lodged two short stay visa applications, which
were rejected by then Federal immigration minister Nick Bolkus, who feared
his presence would be "disruptive".

Irving turned to the courts in an attempt to have the decision overturned
or reviewed but has so far been unsuccessful.

His Full Court appeal came after a single judge of the Federal Court,
Justice Christopher Carr, ruled against him on August 31.  The Full Court
judges - Justices John Davies, Malcolm Lee and Robert Nicholson - reserved
their decision yesterday.

Mr Bates argued that Irving was not a bad character or a threat to
Australia's security.

He said Senator Bolkus had been unfair in refusing him entry.  The
definition of good character according to "ordinary notion" arose from a
1991 case involving the Hell's Angels.

"If we had a fundamentalist Christian minister, for instance, he might
believe a person to be of bad character if that person, say, commits
adultery," Mr Bates said.

"But it is submitted that such a view would not be construed as an ordinary
notion of bad character within the Australian community sufficient to
render a person unable to visit Australia."

Mr Bates said Irving's 1990 conviction in Germany - for defaming the dead -
did not have an equivalent in Australia and fell into the category of
freedom of speech.

At one point, Mr Bates' argument prompted Justice Davies to comment: "What
is relevant is that Mr Irving was convicted in Germany, given a
considerable fine and expelled from the country.

"That just doesn't happen to many people."





Irving on the attack

The Australian, Friday, 22 March 1996

Controversial British historian Mr David Irving, embroiled in legal action
to enter Australia, yesterday attacked the new Howard Government for not
adopting a more traditional approach to freedom of speech.

Speaking through lawyers in London, Mr Irving said he had offered to drop
legal action if the Government granted him an entry visa.

In return for such a visa, he had offered certain assurances - including
his lectures would be held "almost in secret" and that he would make no
public announcements, he said.  But the Government had failed to respond to
the offer.

"I'm disappointed that the new Coalition Government didn't adopt a more
traditional approach to freedom of speech," he said.

Mr Irving was speaking as the Full Bench of the Federal Court yesterday
reserved its decision on his appeal to overturn a ruling last year not to
revoke a decision in 1994 by former immigration minister Senator Nick
Bolkus banning his entry to Australia.






Author in last-ditch entry bid

Daily Telegraph, Friday, 22 March 1996

Lawyers for right-wing British author David Irving yesterday told a court
that just because he was deported from two countries and barred from four
others did not mean he should be refused entry into Australia.

In a legal argument that took in the Hell's Angels, adultery and human
rights in China, lawyer Peter Bates made a last-ditch attempt to convince
the three Full Court judges of the Federal Court that Mr Irving was not an
undesirable element.

The author of several revisionist histories has outraged the international
Jewish community with his claims that Hitler did not order the
extermination of the Jews, and the Holocaust was grossly exaggerated.

Yesterday the three Full Court judges - Justices John Davies, Malcolm Lee
and Robert Nicholson - reserved their decision.






Irving 'accuses Jews of provoking brutality'

Sydney Morning Herald, Friday, 22 March 1996

NEW YORK, Thursday:  The British historian David Irving, who critics have
accused of being a Nazi apologist, is about to trigger a fresh controversy
with a biography of Joseph Goebbels.

According to one advance review, the book blames the Jewish people for
provoking Nazi brutality.

"Publishers Weekly", the book industry's trade publication, says in an
article to be published next week that a storm is already brewing over the
book, "Goebbels: Mastermind of the Third Reich", which it said was
receiving 'blistering pre-publication reviews'.

It is scheduled to be published in May by St Martin's Press.

The magazine's review describes the biography as 'repellent' and said there
was 'an agenda to Irving's documentation'.

It also accuses the author of using 'the language of camouflaged
admiration'.

The anonymous "Publishers Weekly" reviewer said the biography of the Nazi
propaganda chief suggests that 'this admittedly bad man had a cause not
entirely bad in itself'.

'Nazi brutality is almost always retaliation for the plots of international
Jewry and the criminality of domestic Jews.  Even the books notoriously
burned [by the Nazis] are "decadent and anti-German".'

But Irving's publisher, Mr Thomas Dunne, told the magazine that the book
was not sympathetic to Goebbels and that his editors were mystified at such
suggestions.

Irving has over many years been accused of Holocaust revisionism, barred
from Australia and found guilty in Germany of defaming the memory of the
dead.

His 1977 book "Hitler's War" argued that Hitler did not order the
extermination of Jews in World War II.

Reuter



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