Singer Chris Brown has had his visa application to tour in Australia formally denied immigration minister Peter Dutton, has confirmed. Brown was due to perform in the country this December as part of his One Hell of a Nite tour, stopping in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.

Chris BrownChris Brown has been denied entry to Australia.

Brown’s visa was denied based on character grounds and the singer now has 28 days to appeal the decision. “People to whom these notices are issued have 28 days to present material as to why they should be given a visa to enter Australia,” Dutton said.

“Decisions on whether a visa will or will not be issued are made after that timeframe and consideration of the material presented to the Department of Immigration and Border Protection.” In 2009 Brown pleaded guilty to assaulting his then girlfriend Rihanna.

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Earlier in the week the newly appointed women’s minister, Michaelia Cash had spoken about Brown’s case, indicating that the singer would be denied a visa. “I can assure you that the minister for immigration and border protection will be looking at this very, very seriously,” Cash said.

“I am clearly not going to pre-empt a decision by the minister, however, I can assure you what my strong recommendation would be.” Cash had been in Melbourne to announce the government’s new anti-domestic violence measures.

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“People need to understand if you are going to commit domestic violence and then you want to travel around the world, there are going to be countries that say to you, ‘You cannot come in because you are not of the character we expect in Australia,’ and certainly, without pre-empting the decision of the minister, I can assure you it is something that the minister is looking at,” Cash added.

There had also been an online petition by advocacy group GetUp calling for Brown to be banned from entering the country, due to his prior conviction. ‘If we stand by and do nothing while he performs around the country we are implicitly sending the message that if you brutally beat a woman, in a short amount of time you will be forgiven, or even celebrated,' the petition read.