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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.
The Age
14-05-2025
- Business
- The Age
Net zero has been ground zero for energy ambition. What a chance we have now
This opportunity is redolent of the one that was seized by the Curtin and then Chifley governments during and immediately after World War II. John Curtin relied on two independents to govern through his first term from 1941 to 1943. The 1943 election delivered an overwhelming majority and a parliament like the one emerging now after May 3. The second Curtin government and the Chifley government that followed Curtin's death at the end of World War II established an economic reform programme that set up Australia for a quarter of a century of full employment with rising living standards for a growing population. The Chifley government was defeated in 1949 after the leading opposition figure, Robert Menzies, abandoned his United Australia Party, which had become captured by vested business interests. After the United Australia Party's catastrophic defeat in 1943, he established a Liberal Party that could appeal to broader interests and values of the democratic Australian polity. After the election, the Coalition holds only about 15 per cent of seats in the eight capital cities where most Australians live. A 21st-century Menzies would recognise the central role of Coalition approaches to climate and energy policy in the collapse of its electoral support in metropolitan Australia. Loading The renewed Albanese government has an opportunity to deliver the policies that can underpin Australia's use of its exceptionally rich renewable energy and sustainably harvested biomass resources to supply zero-carbon goods that other countries cannot supply economically for themselves. On election night, Albanese restated his commitment to using Australia's clean energy advantages to build a Future Made in Australia. Treasurer Jim Chalmers noted the opportunity that a strong electoral position provided to implement this vision, and told Australians it would not be wasted. Australian exports of goods embodying renewable energy could reduce global emissions by up to 10 per cent. They would generate export income for Australians vastly larger than are now provided by the gas and coal industries, which will decline as other countries reduce carbon emissions. The new industries are large enough to drive restoration of growth in Australian productivity and living standards after the dozen years of stagnation that began in 2013. The most important industries to drive Australia – the superpower industries – use hydrogen made with renewable energy. Recent announcements that many prominent hydrogen projects have been closed or shelved has generated talk that hydrogen is dead, or too underdeveloped for independent life. Like Mark Twain's death, those rumours are exaggerated. Apply sound economic principles to policy and the first hydrogen-based investments in new export industries are ready to go now. Hydrogen-based iron-making is ready for investment in the Upper Spencer Gulf of South Australia. Whyalla will have a sustainable future in iron-making based on green hydrogen, or it will have no sustainable future at all. The May 3 election has not changed in any way the physics, economics or ethics of climate change. What it has changed is the capacity of government in Australia to establish and maintain policies that will allow us to reduce domestic emissions in line with our international obligations. Loading It has strengthened the capacity of government to introduce and sustain policies that support Australia in contributing disproportionately to global decarbonisation by supplying goods embodying renewable energy that the high-income economies of North-East Asia and Europe cannot supply at reasonable cost from their own resources. It has opened an opportunity for Australia to leave behind a dozen years of stagnation of living standards and to enter a new era of full employment with rising incomes for an increasing population.
Sydney Morning Herald
14-05-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Net zero has been ground zero for energy ambition. What a chance we have now
This opportunity is redolent of the one that was seized by the Curtin and then Chifley governments during and immediately after World War II. John Curtin relied on two independents to govern through his first term from 1941 to 1943. The 1943 election delivered an overwhelming majority and a parliament like the one emerging now after May 3. The second Curtin government and the Chifley government that followed Curtin's death at the end of World War II established an economic reform programme that set up Australia for a quarter of a century of full employment with rising living standards for a growing population. The Chifley government was defeated in 1949 after the leading opposition figure, Robert Menzies, abandoned his United Australia Party, which had become captured by vested business interests. After the United Australia Party's catastrophic defeat in 1943, he established a Liberal Party that could appeal to broader interests and values of the democratic Australian polity. After the election, the Coalition holds only about 15 per cent of seats in the eight capital cities where most Australians live. A 21st-century Menzies would recognise the central role of Coalition approaches to climate and energy policy in the collapse of its electoral support in metropolitan Australia. Loading The renewed Albanese government has an opportunity to deliver the policies that can underpin Australia's use of its exceptionally rich renewable energy and sustainably harvested biomass resources to supply zero-carbon goods that other countries cannot supply economically for themselves. On election night, Albanese restated his commitment to using Australia's clean energy advantages to build a Future Made in Australia. Treasurer Jim Chalmers noted the opportunity that a strong electoral position provided to implement this vision, and told Australians it would not be wasted. Australian exports of goods embodying renewable energy could reduce global emissions by up to 10 per cent. They would generate export income for Australians vastly larger than are now provided by the gas and coal industries, which will decline as other countries reduce carbon emissions. The new industries are large enough to drive restoration of growth in Australian productivity and living standards after the dozen years of stagnation that began in 2013. The most important industries to drive Australia – the superpower industries – use hydrogen made with renewable energy. Recent announcements that many prominent hydrogen projects have been closed or shelved has generated talk that hydrogen is dead, or too underdeveloped for independent life. Like Mark Twain's death, those rumours are exaggerated. Apply sound economic principles to policy and the first hydrogen-based investments in new export industries are ready to go now. Hydrogen-based iron-making is ready for investment in the Upper Spencer Gulf of South Australia. Whyalla will have a sustainable future in iron-making based on green hydrogen, or it will have no sustainable future at all. The May 3 election has not changed in any way the physics, economics or ethics of climate change. What it has changed is the capacity of government in Australia to establish and maintain policies that will allow us to reduce domestic emissions in line with our international obligations. Loading It has strengthened the capacity of government to introduce and sustain policies that support Australia in contributing disproportionately to global decarbonisation by supplying goods embodying renewable energy that the high-income economies of North-East Asia and Europe cannot supply at reasonable cost from their own resources. It has opened an opportunity for Australia to leave behind a dozen years of stagnation of living standards and to enter a new era of full employment with rising incomes for an increasing population.
The Age
04-05-2025
- Politics
- The Age
Palmer and Hanson crash out of election despite high hopes and huge spending
But the 2025 results represent a big slump from Palmer's former United Australia Party, which gained 4.1 per cent of the national vote in 2022 after spending more than $120 million, but only managed to install Senator Ralph Babet. Loading Trumpet of Patriots leader Suellen Wrightson, who appeared in the party's ubiquitous advertising, failed in her bid to win the NSW seat of Hunter. One Nation senator Malcom Roberts could lose his Queensland seat at this election and Hanson's daughter Lee is only a rank outside chance to claim a spot in Tasmania's senate ranks. Hanson herself remains in the Senate until 2028. The Coalition under Dutton revoked former Liberal prime minister John Howard's decision to oppose Pauline Hanson's fringe views by placing her last on senate preferences. The Liberals' how to vote cards this year instructed voters to preference One Nation first in 57 seats, while One Nation gave first preference instructions for the Liberals in about 12 seats. Both parties denied there had been a preference deal. Resolve director Jim Reed, who conducts polls for this masthead, said the pre-election excitement over One Nation's influence was not 'visible from the primary vote results.' 'Things were being briefed out, including internal polling, saying it's not as bad as the published polls in marginals,' Reed said. 'It was, and then some.' Loading This masthead's Resolve Political Monitor predicted that Hanson's party would receive 7 per cent of the national vote, with the likely final result within the margin of error. Reed said Trumpet of Patriots prospects fell with Australians' opinions of Donald Trump, after the US president started a global trade war. 'Their strategy may have been OK for a certain portion of the electorate three or four months ago, but they either misread the mood or were unable to change their branding and policy,' he said. Dutton aped several One Nation policies, including Hanson's derision of 'woke' school curriculums. Dutton said in the second last week of the campaign that he wanted to end 'indoctrination.' 'We need to stop the teaching of some of the curriculum that says that our children should be ashamed of being Australian,' he said during a leaders' debate on Channel Seven. Then just days before the election Dutton said he had no plan to change school curriculum. Also in the second last week of the campaign Dutton revved up the culture war over Welcome to Country ceremonies, arguing they were 'overdone' at events like sports matches and on Qantas flights and declared they should not be part of ANZAC day.
Sydney Morning Herald
04-05-2025
- Politics
- Sydney Morning Herald
Palmer and Hanson crash out of election despite high hopes and huge spending
But the 2025 results represent a big slump from Palmer's former United Australia Party, which gained 4.1 per cent of the national vote in 2022 after spending more than $120 million, but only managed to install Senator Ralph Babet. Loading Trumpet of Patriots leader Suellen Wrightson, who appeared in the party's ubiquitous advertising, failed in her bid to win the NSW seat of Hunter. One Nation senator Malcom Roberts could lose his Queensland seat at this election and Hanson's daughter Lee is only a rank outside chance to claim a spot in Tasmania's senate ranks. Hanson herself remains in the Senate until 2028. The Coalition under Dutton revoked former Liberal prime minister John Howard's decision to oppose Pauline Hanson's fringe views by placing her last on senate preferences. The Liberals' how to vote cards this year instructed voters to preference One Nation first in 57 seats, while One Nation gave first preference instructions for the Liberals in about 12 seats. Both parties denied there had been a preference deal. Resolve director Jim Reed, who conducts polls for this masthead, said the pre-election excitement over One Nation's influence was not 'visible from the primary vote results.' 'Things were being briefed out, including internal polling, saying it's not as bad as the published polls in marginals,' Reed said. 'It was, and then some.' Loading This masthead's Resolve Political Monitor predicted that Hanson's party would receive 7 per cent of the national vote, with the likely final result within the margin of error. Reed said Trumpet of Patriots prospects fell with Australians' opinions of Donald Trump, after the US president started a global trade war. 'Their strategy may have been OK for a certain portion of the electorate three or four months ago, but they either misread the mood or were unable to change their branding and policy,' he said. Dutton aped several One Nation policies, including Hanson's derision of 'woke' school curriculums. Dutton said in the second last week of the campaign that he wanted to end 'indoctrination.' 'We need to stop the teaching of some of the curriculum that says that our children should be ashamed of being Australian,' he said during a leaders' debate on Channel Seven. Then just days before the election Dutton said he had no plan to change school curriculum. Also in the second last week of the campaign Dutton revved up the culture war over Welcome to Country ceremonies, arguing they were 'overdone' at events like sports matches and on Qantas flights and declared they should not be part of ANZAC day.
