A planned speaking tour of Australia by British National Party leader Nick Griffin has been postponed.

Griffin had been invited by the Australian Protectionist Party, a fringe far-right political group formed last year, to speak about the “demographic genocide” caused by immigration from the Third World.

Griffin, who was refused a visa to visit Australia in 1998, had lodged an electronic visa application, but was asked by the Immigration Department to submit a full written application because he appears on the federal government’s Movement Alert List, according to ABC News.

The list contains names of more than 600,000 people who have serious criminal records or who may constitute a risk to the Australian community.

The leaders of the Jewish and Islamic communities had written to Immigration Minister Chris Evans, urging him to deny a visa to the fascist leader.

Griffin, who has called the genocide of Jews a “Holohoax”, has been convicted for incitement of racial hatred.

Although there are no official ties between the two far-right parties, Darrin Hodges, the New South Wales chair of the APP, wrote on the party's website that its members should “attempt to emulate the BNP’s many successes in Australia”.

A leaked list of names, addresses and phone numbers of some 10,000 BNP members – including 15 in Australia – was posted on the internet last month, prompting a political storm and a media frenzy.