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'World's number 1 anti-vaxxer' Kent Heckenlively denied entry to Australia

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The self-proclaimed "world's number one anti-vaxxer" has been denied permission to visit Australia.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said on Thursday Kent Heckenlively​ would not be able to tour Australia later this year as part of an international campaign calling for a pause in childhood vaccinations.

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Why this man can't come to Australia

The government has denied Kent Hickenlively a visa because of his controversial views.

"We're not going to allow him to come here," Mr Dutton told Sydney radio station 2GB.

"These people who are telling parents that their kids shouldn't be vaccinated are dangerous. We have been very careful in having a look right through this particular case and it's clear to me that it's not in our national interest that he should come here."

Mr Heckenlively, who lives in northern California, contributes to a website that claims autism is "an environmentally induced illness, that it is treatable, and that children can recover".

He also has links to Andrew Wakefield, the disgraced former doctor whose debunked study was central to the anti-vaccination movement and has since gone on to make the film Vaxxed.

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​The film has been banned by several film festivals but has been shown in secret locations around Australia.

Immigration officials recently banned British campaigner Polly Tommey​ and US campaigner Suzanne Humphries from entering the country for three years after the pair toured Australia with Vaxxed, which alleges there is a link between the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine and autism.

The opposition had written to Mr Dutton requesting Mr Heckenlively's application for a visa be denied.

"While our immunisation program has historically been effective, there is growing evidence that anti-vaccination advocates and their political allies like Pauline Hanson are now undermining our success - as shown by the doubling of measles cases between 2013 and 2014," the opposition's health spokeswoman, Catherine King, wrote earlier this month.

Ms King said Mr Heckenlively was a "dangerous anti-vaccination zealot".

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