The rapper will have to apply for a visa, which has already been denied to people with controversial ideas.
Australian Education Minister Jason Clare expressed doubts Wednesday that American rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, could enter the country because of his anti-Semitic comments.
In an interview on Channel Nine television, Clare described Ye’s comments as “horrible”, who according to reports in the local press plans to travel to Australia to visit the family of his current partner, Australian architect Bianca Censori.
“People like that who have applied for visas to enter Australia in the past have been turned down. I guess if you apply you would have to go through the same process and answer the same questions,” Clare said.
The rapper praised Hitler last December in an interview on a far-right blog in which he said he saw “good things” in the leader of Nazi Germany, calling him a “cool guy.”
“I like the Jews, but I also love the Nazis,” he said at another point in the interview.
These statements caused Twitter to cancel the rapper’s account, while other similar comments led to the end of his collaboration with the sports brand Adidas.
In recent years Australia has denied visas to people with controversial ideas, such as the American Kent Heckenlively, a self-proclaimed leader in the anti-vaccination campaign who was denied a visa in 2017.