Police documents obtained by Crikey reveal Home Affairs had urgent concerns about Nigel Farage’s visa in the days before the former UK politician visited Australia last year.
The documents also give insight into efforts by NSW Police to gather intelligence on potential protesters in the weeks leading up to a speaking event in Sydney by the one-time Brexit Party leader in September.
In an email from the Australian Federal Police that appears to have been sent to NSW Police on September 21 2022 — five days before Farage was due to arrive — an officer wrote: “The AFP has received an urgent request from Home Affairs to help inform a decision in regards to a visa consideration.”
“Former UK politician Nigel Farage is scheduled to visit Australia and host shows in Melbourne (26 September), Sydney (27 September) and Brisbane (29 September).”
The email went on to say an AFP team needed “any information in regards to known protest activities” and asked if NSW Police had “any intelligence in regards to Turning Point Australia or any other groups either in support of, or opposed to” Farage.
The email was sent at 8am and the officer who wrote it requested an answer by 10am, acknowledging it was an “extremely tight timeframe”.
Turning Point Australia (TPA), a right-wing activist organisation, brought Farage to Australia with the help of Damien Costas, former publisher of Penthouse magazine in Australia.
Costas told Crikey he helped TPA organise the event because he knows Farage and has worked with him in the past. He said Farage’s visa application had been delayed because of apparent COVID-related backlogs at Home Affairs and that the urgent request for information came after a visa lawyer had “escalated” the matter.
“Generally what happens with visas, and I’ve done this a few times — if someone applies for a visa for work, especially in a capacity of doing speeches, the immigration department needs to understand if there’s any increased risk in having them in the country,” Costas said.
“If the visit poses a risk for any reason, that could be grounds for not approving the visa. [In the end] the AFP said there was no increased risk.”
A NSW Police briefing note described Costas as having “received controversy in the past” and referred to him as the “porn king”.
“I actually have no idea where I received that title from,” Costas told Crikey. “I do not make pornography and never have.”
Home Affairs told Crikey it could not comment on individual cases.
The documents, which were furnished to the NSW Parliament after One Nation MP Mark Latham issued what’s known as a Standing Order 52, also shed light on police efforts to figure out whether there would be any protests associated with Farage’s Sydney gig.
A briefing note dated August 19 said the NSW Police’s public order and events intelligence unit had “not identified any protests as yet” but said “it is almost certain the conference will see protest action”.
In the weeks that followed, police continued monitoring online activity to find any hints of planned protests. On September 13, a police officer emailed colleagues to say “FARAGE himself has been posting positive messages about the queen, indicating his sadness at her passing … In other news Farage is also planning to launch a Brexit-themed gin”.
“Aside from these two irrelevant bits of info we have no new intelligence. We have still not located any information to suggest there will be protest activity at his event.”
On September 21, a NSW officer wrote to colleagues that “there is limited intelligence surrounding counter protests in response to this event” but added “left wing issue motivated groups” were “building support for protest action”.
Despite the lack of evidence that there were protests planned, police determined they would need up to 30 officers staffing the event. Costas was told he would need to pay for some of them through a system known as “user charge”, and an officer sent him an estimate for the cost.
“The rate is $139.90 (per hour per officer) x hours worked x 6 (number of police),” an officer wrote in an email to Costas. “The total cost would be $3777.30.”
In the end, only four “user charge” cops were deployed, meaning the cost to Costas would have been about $2500.
“It’s a pittance in the scheme of things, when you charge $100 per ticket,” Costas told Crikey. “It didn’t make a lot of sense, but we paid it, because it’s better to keep the police on side.”
“I’m not a troublemaker, contrary to popular belief — I prefer to make money, rather than cause problems.”
Farage, however, raged against the cost, telling Sky News Australia during his visit “he couldn’t believe” the charge: “This is a free speech protection racket. I cannot believe it. If this had happened in the UK it’d be front-page of every national newspaper.”
Sky News host Paul Murray, who interviewed Farage, held up what he said was a copy of the letter, saying the cost was “unbelievable”. Latham, too, railed against the cost in Parliament, saying “it was simply a shakedown to make the organisers pay nearly $4000”.
Police confirmed to Crikey the organisers were charged for four police officers and said doing so was “standard practice”.
A police “shift synopsis” written the day after Farage’s Sydney speech said there had been “nil issues or protest activity”.
Farage, Turning Point Australia and Latham were contacted for comment.
