Adams ban challenged
By Dave Riley
BRISBANE — Despite the growing support for Sinn Féin in northern Ireland, as registered in recent British elections, Sinn Féin leader and recently elected MP Gerry Adams is not allowed into Australia.
Last year, the Howard government denied him a visa on the grounds that he was "not of good character". Deferring to the wishes of the previous British administration of John Major, Howard asserted that Adams was associated with the Irish Republican Army.
The government simultaneously denied an entrance visa to Nazi apologist David Irving — a man with criminal convictions in England, Canada and Germany — in an attempt to taint Adams with the same capacity for political mischief.
Supporters of Adams' right to enter Australia have mounted a court challenge to the ban. The next hearing before the Federal Court in Brisbane on July 1 will request that the government supply documentary evidence that Adams is "not of good character".
But as Sean Whelan from the Visa for Adams Committee told Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, this hearing won't come cheap. Recent changes to the federal legal system mean that a base fee of $2000 a day is now charged simply to present a case to the Federal Court. The Visa for Adams Committee and Australian Aid for Ireland are holding a concert on June 26 to finance the action (see page 22 for details).