Both the Liberal Prime Minister Mr John Howard, and the Premier of the state of Western Australia, Mr Richard Court, have declared their intention to snub Mr Gerry Adams when he arrives in Perth on February 22nd for an eight-day tour.
Mr Adams was invited to visit the country by the Australian Aid for Ireland group last November when a visa, withheld until then by the Minister for Immigration, was issued to him. According to a spokesman for the group, the aim of the tour is to inform the Australian public and politicians better on Sinn Fein's role in the peace process.
The controversy began two weeks ago when a government spokesman said the Prime Minister had no intention of meeting the Sinn Fein leader because of what he called Mr Adams's party's links with terrorism and because he viewed Mr John Hume and Mr David Trimble as the "real heroes" of the peace process.
Last Friday, Mr Court said there was "no point in meeting him".
"I am greatly encouraged by the peace process but it has a long way to go," he said. "I abhor the use of violence for political ends and there are some parties that still need to prove their bona fides."
No formal requests have been made on behalf of Mr Adams to meet politicians but some have already said they would respond positively to any request. Included in these are the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Alexander Downer, and the Premier of the state of Victoria, Mr Jeff Kennett. "Given that he is playing an important role in trying to reach a peace settlement in Ireland I thought it would be churlish of me not to see him," Mr Kennett said.
During the ensuing debate which has divided loosely along republican and monarchist lines, the opposition leader, Labour's Mr Kim Beazley, said meeting Mr Adams was appropriate "given the significant progress over the last year in the Northern Ireland peace process and the fact that there is a large number of Australians of Irish and British descent who have a keen interest in this process".
Others have been scathing of the decision by the Prime Minister and the Premier to snub the Sinn Fein leader. Mr Geoff Gallop, Labour leader for Western Australia, said their attitude was "petty and shortsighted".
"If it is good enough for Britain and the US, who are in constant dialogue with Adams, then it is good enough for Australia," he told The Irish Times.
Mr John Little, vice-president of Australian Aid for Ireland, added his voice to the criticism, saying Mr Howard and Mr Court were suffering from political myopia. "I am dismayed by their lack of desire to be more informed about the peace process, given that they were elected representatives of a nation 30 per cent of whom are directly descended from Ireland," he said.
Another member of the group said Mr Court's response did not surprise him and claimed that a A$400 million motorway tunnel and a bell tower to be erected in the Western Australian capital of Perth were among the Premier's main political priorities at the moment. "He must be suffering from tunnel vision and tinnitis," he said.
According to Mr Little the group did no direct fundraising for Sinn Fein but raised money for other projects, such as prisoner welfare schemes to support the nationalist community in Northern Ireland.
Speaking on a Perth radio station last week, Mr Adams gave Australian listeners his reaction to Mr Howard's description of Mr Trimble and Mr Hume as "the real heroes" of the peace process.
"I don't pretend to be a hero," he said, adding that his visit to Australia "isn't an ego-trip". It was ironic, he said, that he was in constant touch with influential leaders such as the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, and President Clinton but that the Australian leader had refused to meet him. "I hope this will be a visit which will be uneventful, non-controversial and which will give everybody an opportunity to listen and learn," he said. The interview drew such a strong response, both positive and negative, from listeners that it was rebroadcast the following day.
A section of the Australian population is supporting the stance taken by their Prime Minister. The parents of Mr Stephen Melrose, an Australian lawyer murdered by the IRA in 1990 in the Netherlands when he and his friend were mistaken for British soldiers, have written to the Prime Minister to congratulate him on his refusal to meet Mr Adams.
While in Australia the Sinn Fein leader will speak at a number of functions in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth. On one of the two days he will spend in Perth the Sinn Fein leader is to speak at a literary luncheon where he will discuss the books he has authored or co-authored over the years. The venue for the event is a ballroom above the city's longest-established Irish pub - Fenians.