Kanye West could potentially be barred from entering Australia due to anti-Semitic comments he has made, a senior Australian government minister said Wednesday.
The rapper, known as Ye, is reportedly planning a visit to Melbourne in the coming days to meet the family of his new wife, designer Bianca Censori.
Recall that Ye was widely criticised last year for praising Adolf Hitler during an interview with American far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
Education Minister Jason Clare suggested his past comments could prevent Ye from gaining an Australian visa.
While Mr. Clare did not know if the rapper had applied for a visa, he said a quick Google search revealed he ‘seems like he’s a pretty big fan of a person who killed six million Jewish people last century’.
‘People like that who’ve applied for visas to get into Australia in the past have been rejected,’ he told Nine’s Today on Wednesday January 25.
‘I expect that if he does apply, he would have to go through the same process and answer the same questions that they did.’
On Tuesday, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said his inclination would be to not allow the rapper to enter Australia.
‘His anti-Semitic comments are disgraceful, his conduct and his behaviour is appalling, and he’s not a person of good character,’ Mr Dutton told 3AW.
Mr. Dutton said the immigration minister had the power to stop people of bad character coming into Australia.
‘My instinct would be if I was that decision maker, I think there are better people we could welcome in,’ he said.
Last month, Ye praised Hitler in an interview with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
Twitter later suspended Ye after he tweeted a picture of a swastika merged with the Star of David.
Australia’s Migration Act sets security and character requirements for non-citizens to enter the country.
Any decision on whether Ye gets an Australian visa would be made by Immigration Minister Andrew Giles, whose office said he could not comment on individual cases due to privacy reasons.
Ye and Censori intend to visit her family who live in the northeast Melbourne suburb of Ivanhoe next week.
