A leading British far-right politician is planning a controversial speaking tour of Australia.
The Chairman of the British National Party, Nick Griffin, has confirmed his intention to visit Australia in December.
Mr Griffin's tour is sponsored by the anti-Asian Australian Protectionist Party which was formed last year by breakaway members of the Australia First Party.
Announcing Mr Griffin's visit, the president of the Australian Protectionist Party, Andrew Phillips, said that the British National Party leader would speak to Australian audiences ''on the experiences of the British National Party in their fight to protect Britain and its people from the demographic genocide that is threatening their homeland, caused by the large-scale immigration of people from the Third World''.
Mr Griffin joined the neo-Nazi British National Front as a teenager and has led the British National Party since 1999. Like the anti-Semitic historian David Irving, he has disputed whether the Holocaust took place, calling it the ''hoax of the 20th century''.
In recent years, however, Mr Griffin has sought to ''mainstream'' the British National Party, avoiding overt anti-Semitism and instead focussing on immigration, especially attacks on the Britain's Muslim communities.
The British National Party has enjoyed modest but significant success in British local government elections, claiming more than 100 elected representatives, though some of these have reportedly split from the party.
In May 1998 Mr Griffin was prosecuted for incitement to racial hatred after he published an article that referred to non-white people as ''mongrel slaves''. He received a nine-month suspended sentence and a large fine.
In 2006 Mr Griffin was again prosecuted for racial vilification, but was found not guilty in two trials.
Mr Griffin attempted to visit Australia in August 1998. That proposed visit attracted strong criticism from the federal Labor opposition and then immigration minister Philip Ruddock reportedly banned Mr Griffin from entry. Mr Griffin told The Canberra Times yesterday that ''I was formally told I would not be allowed in.''
Mr Griffin said he hoped there would be no problems with getting a visa 10 years later.
Australia Israel Jewish Affairs Council spokesman Jeremy Jones condemned Mr Griffin's planned visit saying his past criminal conviction for inciting racial hatred should be sufficient to ensure his exclusion.
''A visit by Griffin ought to be a matter of concern for Australia's Muslim community, indeed by all communities here who have found that tolerance and engagement is a better path than division and hatred.''
The Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, Chris Evans, said all visa applicants must satisfy the character test of the Migration Act that includes provisions to ensure that a non-citizen will not vilify, incite discord in or represent a danger to the Australian community, or part of that community.