CANBERRA, Australia — A senior minister in the Australian government said on Wednesday that if rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, tries to visit Australia, he might not get a visa because of his anti-Semitic comments.
Education Minister Jason Clare was responding to news reports that the famous American was going to visit the family of his new Australian girlfriend Bianca Censori next week in Melbourne.
Clare said he didn’t know if Ye had tried to get a visa or not, but that Australia had denied visas to people with anti-Semitic views in the past.
Clare told Nine Network television, “I expect that if he does apply, he would have to go through the same process and answer the same questions” as others who have said similar things.
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In an interview with Alex Jones last month, Ye said nice things about Hitler. Ye was later banned from Twitter after he sent a tweet with a picture of a swastika and a Star of David.
Australia’s Migration Act says that non-citizens must meet certain security and moral standards before they can move there. Immigration Minister Andrew Giles would decide if Ye gets an Australian visa. His office said he couldn’t talk about individual cases because of privacy laws.
Peter Wertheim, who is co-chief executive officer of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, met with government officials on Tuesday to argue for an entry ban.
“They were kind to us,” Wertheim said on Sky News. “We’ve made the case that this person doesn’t meet the character test and that it would be best for the country if he didn’t get a visa, and we’ve gone into detail about why.”
Peter Dutton, who is the leader of the opposition, said that if he were in charge, he might ban Ye based on his character.
Dutton told Melbourne’s Radio 3AW on Tuesday, “My first thought would be not to let him in.”
“His antisemitic comments are disgusting, and he is not a good person,” Dutton said.
Seven Network News said that next week, Ye and Censori are going to visit her family in the suburb of Ivanhoe, which is north of Melbourne.
Ye and Censori just got married about two months after Ye’s divorce from Kim Kardashian was finalised, according to the entertainment news website TMZ.
The AP asked Ye’s representative if he had married Censori and if he was planning to go to Melbourne, but they didn’t hear back right away.
