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A man who has organized a series of meetings promoting the legalization of rape could be barred from entering Australia, after Immigration Minister Peter Dutton announced he would personally look into the matter.
Daryush Valizadeh, a controversial writer and pickup artist known as Roosh V, has organized a series of "tribal meetings" across Australian cities for Saturday, through a U.S-based "neo-masculine" website called "Return of Kings."
But on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Immigration Department confirmed Valizadeh has not applied for a visa despite announcing he was embarking on a "last-minute trip to Australia," while Dutton said that Australia would not be welcoming a man who advocates violence and sexual assault against women.
"Australia doesn't welcome people to our country who disrespect women," Dutton said on Tuesday.
"The department in the past has made decisions to cancel visas of people that advocate violence, particularly against women."
According to the group's website, Return of Kings "aims to usher the return of the masculine man," and claims that masculinity has been quashed and suppressed in favor of "creating a politically-correct society that allows women to assert superiority and control over men."
Fellow MP, Senator Larissa Waters has called on Dutton to act against the "neo-masculinist" as soon as possible.
"It is incredibly disturbing that anyone would propound those sort of medieval views," Waters told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
"I would hope that Minister Dutton says 'no'. It would be a good use of those powers to deny this abuse proponent a visa."
Meanwhile an online petition to formally prevent the meeting from going ahead has attracted more than 30,000 signatures since it was made on Monday.
The series of meetings are set to take place on Feb. 6, with a number of state police departments have said they will be "monitoring these areas" to make sure no violent outbursts occur.
Dutton's announcement follows a decision by the Immigration Department to last month cancel the visa of renowned "pick-up artist" Jeff Allen on "character grounds."
