Kanye West’s anti-Semitic song was on Home Affairs’ radar within days, emails reveal

The idea of cancelling Kanye West’s Australian visa was being discussed by Home Affairs merely hours after he released an anti-Semitic song which referenced and sampled Adolf Hitler, newly released documents show.

US rapper West released the widely condemned track called Heil Hitler on May 8, and the song was swiftly removed from Spotify, YouTube and Apple Music.

Two months later, it was revealed that Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said West, now known as Ye, could not enter Australia and had his visa cancelled.

But newly released documents, made available under Freedom of Information laws and published on Right to Know, show the Home Affairs department pre-empted “press” on West’s visa “given his new song is glorifying Hitler”.

An email sent between Home Affairs staff on May 13 said: “The song has been out for two days and has had some media coverage.

“The discussion of cancellation is being had with the MO [Minister’s Office] and … will keep us in the loop should that decision be made.”

Ye was formerly married to Kim Kardashian and is now wed to Bianca Censori, who grew up in Melbourne, and was granted a tourist visa which was cancelled on May 28 this year.

In the decision record of the visa cancellation, sent to West, much of the evidence of grounds for cancellation has been redacted, but it does label the rapper a “high-profile individual with extreme views”.

It added: “His influence has a far-reaching effect to those in the mainstream community.

“There is a risk that those views will be adopted by members of the community and potentially increase the level of hatred and instances of attacks against particular segments of the community, namely the Jewish population.”

Mr Burke revealed West had his Australian visa cancelled during an interview with the ABC in early July, where the subject of Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and the revocation of visas was raised.

He said: “(West’s) made a lot of offensive comments. But my officials looked at it again once he released the Heil Hitler song, and he no longer has a valid visa in Australia.

“It wasn’t a visa even for the purpose of the concerts; it was a lower level. 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’.”

After the release of Ye’s song, the American posted on X to say he was “done with anti-Semitism” and released an alternative version of the track called Hallelujah.