Shadow Home Affairs Minister Jonathan Duniam has urged the Australian Government to prevent streamer Hasan Piker from entering the country, arguing that his record of controversial remarks should be examined under Australia’s migration laws.
Piker, among the world’s most prominent online commentators, is scheduled to appear at the iStream convention in Melbourne in January 2027.
Organisers have billed the event as “Australia’s largest content creator convention”. It is also expected to feature major online personalities including TommyInnit and Pokimane.
Piker is listed on the line-up alongside Australian media personality Abbie Chatfield, with organisers describing him as the “face of pop culture and lifestyle on Twitch”.
His planned appearance has reignited debate over comments he has made on terrorism, geopolitics and extremist organisations.
“Hasan Piker has made many obscene and notorious remarks about a number of sensitive issues, including the 9/11 attacks, Hamas and Israel,” Duniam told Our News Outlet.
“So, if he has been granted a visa to Australia by the Albanese Government, it is very difficult to understand how that could possibly have been allowed.”
Duniam said Piker could potentially fail Australia’s character test, provisions that have previously been used to prevent high-profile commentators such as Candace Owens from entering the country.
Hasan Piker (pictured) is set to attend the iStream convention in Melbourne in 2027
Jonathan Duniam (pictured) has called for streamer Hasan Piker to be barred from Australia
“The character provisions of Australia’s migration laws are meant to provide the Government with the ability to consider whether an overseas visitor would risk vilifying Australians or inflaming community division and to block the arrival of any such person,” he said.
“Any clear-headed assessment of Piker’s past record would surely have to invoke these provisions.”
Piker, who broadcasts under the name HasanAbi, is one of the most prominent progressive political commentators on the US-based streaming platform Twitch.
He built his initial following at The Young Turks, the left-wing digital media outlet founded by his uncle, Cenk Uygur, before leaving in 2020 to concentrate on his rapidly growing online platforms.
Piker now runs one of Twitch’s largest political channels, combining news analysis, interviews, commentary and gaming content.
His influence also extends to political organising. Last year, he campaigned alongside prominent progressive Democrats, including Zohran Mamdani, who is now New York’s mayor.
Critics, however, have accused Piker of making comments supportive of groups including Ansar Allah, widely known as the Houthi movement, which Australia classifies as a terrorist organisation.
In January 2024, Piker interviewed a Yemeni social media figure following the hijacking of the Galaxy Leader cargo ship during Houthi operations in the Red Sea.
When asked if antisemitism motivated the October 7 attackers, Piker (pictured) said: ‘No.’
The interview drew condemnation from commentators who argued that it risked sanitising the Iran-backed group’s actions.
In another livestream, Piker reportedly praised Houthi attacks on shipping linked to Israel and discussed vessel seizures with enthusiasm.
He said he did not ‘have an issue’ with Hezbollah, while acknowledging its status as a terrorist organisation in the US.
Piker has also faced scrutiny for comments regarding Hamas and the October 7 attacks in Israel.
Critics point to comments in which he described Hamas as ‘a thousand times better than Israel’ and said allegations of sexual violence during the attacks did not alter his broader view of the conflict.
During a 2024 exchange with a Cambridge University student, Piker was repeatedly pressed to unequivocally condemn Hamas’s massacre at the Nova music festival, where hundreds were killed.
When asked if there could ever be context for the murder of concertgoers, Piker said it was ‘important to understand the context in which violent resistance has evolved, whether it be Hamas or whether it be any militancy’.
The student argued ‘there is a time to say something is unequivocally evil and something is unequivocally unjustifiable,’ referencing the killings, mutilations and reports of sexual violence during the attack.
Piker will appear alongside a number of high-profile guests, including Abbie Chatfield
Piker called the events ‘horrifying atrocities’, but argued they were not driven by ‘antiquated antisemitic tendencies’ or a desire for mass rape.
Pushed on whether the perpetrators were motivated by antisemitism, he replied: ‘No.’
The student also challenged Piker about the Houthis, noting their slogan contains the phrase ‘Death to the Jews’. Piker said he had been critical of that rhetoric.
Critics have argued the exchange showed Piker sought to contextualise the October 7 massacre rather than provide an unequivocal condemnation of Hamas.
Before Russia’s invasion in 2022, Piker also dismissed concerns of an imminent attack as ‘Western fearmongering’ and claimed Crimea was effectively Russian territory. He later apologised.
Mr Duniam said Australia must be cautious about giving a platform to figures whose public statements risk minimising extremist violence.
‘At a time when social cohesion is under strain, we should be asking whether inviting figures with a record of inflammatory comments helps bring Australians together or drives communities further apart,’ he said.
The British Home Office barred both Piker and his uncle, The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur, from entering the UK in June 2026.
Australia’s Department of Home Affairs, iStream and Piker were contacted by Our News Outlet for comment.
