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Daily Mail
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Aussie senator defends picking 'Heil Hitler' as his song of the week - after fury erupts over his love of the Kanye West track
A controversial 'Make Australia Great Again' politician has doubled down on his decision to choose Kanye West 's song 'Heil Hitler', as his 'song of the week'. Ralph Babet, a senator for Clive Palmer's United Australia Party, earlier this week shared a post not only endorsing West's song but also announcing he'd rather associate with neo-Nazis than the 'mentally ill' and 'baby-killing' left-wing. In the song, West refers to himself as a Nazi and plays audio of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, whose reign of terror led to the murder of six-million Jews in the Holocaust. The post sparked outrage from Anti-Defamation Commission chairman Dr Dvir Abramovich, who warned it signalled a larger, dangerous issue and called on United Australia leader Clive Palmer to sack Babet from the party. The controversial senator has since defended his song choice. 'I like Kanye West. He's a great artist… If someone else doesn't like what he puts out, don't buy it. Don't listen to it,' Babet told The Australian. 'But don't you f**king dare tell me what I can and can't listen to.' 'If they're going to try and associate me with being a Nazi - a brown immigrant from Africa - that's f**king bulls**t. You know it. I know it.' When approached for comment by Daily Mail Australia, Babet pointed to a post on X, formerly Twitter, with his interpretation of West's song. 'The entire point of the song, as would be clear to anyone who even bothered to do even a minimal amount of homework, is that Hitler is bad,' Babet wrote. 'That's right. The point of the song is that Adolf Hitler is bad. He is the personification of evil and mental illness. 'The song begins with Kanye West confessing that he is filled with rage and anger. Worse, he is hopelessly addicted to drugs. Then he admits, 'I'm the villain. 'It's in that context he sings 'Heil Hitler', not to acknowledge Hitler's desire to kill Jews but in the sense that Hitler, in our culture, has come to mean the devil.' Dr Abramovich was outraged to learn that a sitting Australian senator funded by the taxpayer endorsing a song glorifying Hitler. 'This is not a clumsy joke,' Dr Abramovich told Daily Mail Australia. 'When a federal parliamentarian publicly declares that a track titled 'Heil Hitler' is his favourite of the week, the alarm bells shouldn't be ringing - they should be deafening. 'This is not free speech. This is a public meltdown of moral responsibility.' Dr Abramovich explained the unashamed glorification of Hitler, seemingly without tangible consequences, will only give rise to far-right groups. The use of the genocide leader's name in trivial content, like a social media post, only works to numb viewers from atrocities driven by discrimination. 'Hitler is not a meme or a punchline. His name stands for genocide, mass murder, and gas chambers,' Dr Abramovich said. 'It is carved into the bones of six-million Jews and millions more victims. 'And now, a senator is casually promoting that name like it's just another track in a playlist.' Adding to Dr Abramovich's concern is Babet's proud narrow-mindedness, which is often applauded by his supporters. 'This same elected official says he'd rather associate with a neo-Nazi group than with Australians he disagrees with,' he said. 'He calls his fellow citizens 'retarded', 'baby-killing', and 'mentally ill' - and then shrugs it off with a smirk. 'What message does this send? That hatred is fashionable? That praising Nazi propaganda is just a vibe? That slurs and incitement are acceptable if you're wearing a suit? 'If a song titled 'Heil Hitler' is now being celebrated by someone sitting in the Australian Senate, what dark corner is left to reach?' Other Aussies were also outraged by Babet's post. 'This outrageous rubbish comes from a senator in the Australian parliament. In my view, he is not a fit and proper person to continue in that role,' one man wrote. Dr Abramovich called Mr Palmer to send a message to all Neo-Nazis. 'I am calling on Clive Palmer to immediately disendorse Senator Ralph Babet and to unequivocally condemn these abhorrent and dehumanising remarks,' he said. 'If he stays silent, he is complicit. 'This is not about left or right. This is about right and wrong. Australia must be better than this. 'The senator says he likes the song. I say this will be remembered as the moment we either stood up or stood by.' Babet was elected to the Senate for Victoria in 2022. He announced he will not run again following his current term, which ends in June 2028.
News.com.au
15-05-2025
- Politics
- News.com.au
Australian politician slammed over Kanye praise
This is not a drill. This is not clickbait. This is a sitting senator in the Australian parliament proudly announcing to his followers that his 'song of the week' is Kanye West's 'Heil Hitler.' Yes, that song, the one featuring the voice of Adolf Hitler himself. Let me say that again, because I never imagined I'd have to: An elected federal politician in 2025 has praised a song that glorifies history's greatest mass murderer. Ralph Babet, who somehow believes this is just a matter of personal taste, has not only applauded a piece of Holocaust-themed propaganda, he's gone further. In the same rant, he declared he'd rather spend time with neo-Nazis than with what he called 'mentally ill' and 'baby-killing' left-wing Australians. Just when you think it can't get any worse, he adds that it was all 'tongue-in-cheek.' That he wouldn't really hang out with neo-Nazis because, well, they'd want to deport him for being brown. And sure, he also claims he was just sharing a 'good song' by a 'great artist' and that attempts to label him a Nazi were 'f**ing bulls**t'. Be that as it may, this isn't politics. This seems like moral vandalism with a Senate badge. And the most terrifying part? This wasn't buried in some dark corner of the internet. It was posted on Instagram for all to see. It was loud, proud, and unrepentant. This was a megaphone, not a mistake. Let us not lose sight of what this moment represents. Adolf Hitler is not a vibe. He is not a meme. His name does not belong on a Spotify playlist. It belongs to the ashes of Auschwitz and Treblinka. It belongs to gas chambers, to mass graves, to tattooed arms and shattered families. When you celebrate that name, when you call 'Heil Hitler' your favourite song, you are desecrating the memory of six million Jews and every Australian soldier who fought to defeat the regime that name represents. And when you say you'd rather hang out with members of a neo-Nazi group than with your fellow Australians, you are not making a joke. You are not being edgy. You are giving the ugliest people in this country a green light. With songs like this being shared by a senator, you wonder whether the National Socialist Network even needs to promote themselves anymore. There is a reason these words matter. Because when hate is amplified by power, it spreads faster. Louder. Deeper. The lines blur. The fringe moves to the centre. And before long, what once shocked becomes routine. I'm not interested in Senator Babet's denials of being a Nazi. That's irrelevant. The issue is not his intent. The issue is the impact. His words will be quoted in extremist forums. Clipped, reposted, celebrated. Kanye's video will become a calling card for white supremacists who now feel they have a friend in parliament. And what does it say to Jewish Australians? That in 2025, they still have to hear something featuring the name 'Hitler' praised in the public square? That the horrors their grandparents survived are now a punchline for social media engagement? Enough. This is not just offensive. This is dangerous. With these kind of acts, the National Socialist Network, which once had to operate on the fringes of society, doesn't need to market itself anymore. He claims it was all 'tongue-in-cheek.' He says the neo-Nazis wouldn't want him anyway, because of his background. As if that somehow makes it better. It doesn't. You don't joke about Holocaust glorification. You don't wink at songs containing the symbols of mass extermination. You don't casually name-drop Hitler as part of your weekly vibe check. If a schoolteacher praised this song, they'd be fired. If a corporate CEO did it, they'd be gone before lunch. But a senator? Still seated. Still empowered. And that tells us something terrifying: that the old lines—the moral boundaries that once held this country together—are being erased. That we've grown numb to the rising temperature. This is not political correctness gone mad. This is not a matter of free speech. That's why I'm calling on Clive Palmer to do what any decent leader would do: disendorse Ralph Babet and denounce this latest act, without spin, without delay. Because if we allow a song called 'Heil Hitler' to be proudly promoted by someone sitting in our Senate, then we are not just failing the victims of the past—we are failing the future of this nation. This is not a Jewish issue. This is not a left or right issue. This is an Australian issue. Dr Dvir Abramovich is Chair of the Anti-Defamation Commission and the author of eight books Senator Ralph Babet hits back In a statement to Senator Babet insisted he was not a 'Nazi sympathiser', urging critics to 'read the lyrics of the song before they accuse me of being something I most certainly am not'. 'Kanye West's song, as is obvious to all who have listened to it, is not glorifying Nazis or Adolf Hitler,' he said, claiming the 'entire point of the song.. is that Hitler is bad'. 'The song begins with Kanye West confessing that he is filled with rage and anger. Worse, he is hopelessly addicted to drugs. Then he admits … 'I'm the villain.' It's in THAT context he sings 'Heil Hitler' … not to acknowledge Hitler's desire to kill Jews but in the sense that Hitler, in our culture, has come to mean the devil,' he claimed. 'And Kanye fears that he himself, filled with insatiable rage and his mind screwed up by drugs, has become the devil. Or, if you will, Hitler. He's saying I'm angry, I'm completely messed up in the head. I'm basically Hitler. The reaction to my admission that I liked the song demonstrates how many people in this country flick their mouth to outrage before engaging their brain into first gear.' Mr Babet added that 'people should be free to listen to whatever they want'. 'I won't be apologising for liking Kanye's song because the song neither endorses Hitler nor promotes Nazis. Far from it. The song, as I have said, depicts Hitler and the Nazis as the personification of evil. That so many people ran to outraged over a song they have either not bothered to listen to or completely failed to understand says a great deal more about them than it says about me.'
