By Tom Crowley, ABC
Kanye West married Bianca Censori, who is from Melbourne, in 2022. Photo: MATT WINKELMEYER
Rapper Kanye West was denied entry to Australia over antisemitic song lyrics, the nation's Immigration Minister, Tony Burke, has revealed.
Burke told the ABC's Afternoon Briefing that the musician, who goes by Ye, had a valid visa cancelled by officials in his department after releasing a song titled Heil Hitler.
"He's made a lot of offensive comments that my officials looked at again once he released [that] song," he said.
"He's got family here ... It wasn't a visa for the purpose of concerts. It was a lower-level [visa] and the officials still looked at the law and said if you're going to have a song and promote that sort of Nazism, we don't need that in Australia."
The minister made the comments in the context of a discussion about the apparent visa cancellation of Israeli-American tech advocate Hillel Fuld for Islamophobic comments.
Burke said his department "never actually got" an application from Fuld.
However, Burke said Fuld had "publicly put in writing that Islamophobia is rational" and on those grounds, he would not be inclined to allow entry to Australia for a speaking tour.
"If someone argued that antisemitism was rational, I would not let them come here on a speaking tour. And if someone has the same view of Islamophobia, I don't want them here when the purpose of the visa is to give public speeches."
Burke said a "stricter line" applied to those who wanted to visit Australia for the purposes of public advocacy and that West was the only instance he could recall of a cancellation of a visa that was not for advocacy purposes.
There was speculation in 2023 about the ability of West to visit Australia, where Bianca Censori, whom he married in 2022, is from.
At the time, government frontbencher Jason Clare suggested his history of antisemitic remarks would be grounds for visa refusal.
Those comments were made before Burke was the relevant minister and before the release of the Heil Hitler song, which happened earlier this year.
Burke did not say there was a permanent ban on the rapper, pointing out that visa applications were reassessed each time in accordance with the law.
"I'm not taking away the way the act operates, but even for the lowest level of visa, when my officials looked at it, they cancelled that following the announcement of that song," he said.
"We have enough problems in this country already without deliberately importing bigotry."
- ABC
