Ralph Babet, 40, who represents Victoria in the Australian Senate, was photographed with a young man who appears to display a Nazi-like salute.
The Australian politician, who is seen giving a thumbs up, has said that he didn’t know that he was posing with a self-described neo-Nazi, Nathan Bull.
The latter posted the photo on social media, despite a new law in Australia that criminalizes public displays of the Nazi salute. Bull captioned the photo: “Heil Ralph Babet, Heil our people,” and made it his profile picture.
He claimed in another post, “After my discussion with Ralph Babet the other day, I’m glad to say the White Race is in good hands. Ralph whispered into my ear: ‘White Revolution is the only Solution.’” He attached a photo to that post, which is a collage of the politician in profile view and himself wearing a mask with a skull on it.
Angered over the incident, Babet publicly repudiated the account.
“The far left and the far right are all a bunch of losers,” he said. “I don’t know who he is. I don’t care who he is.” He pointed out that “hundreds of people per month ask for a photo with me everywhere I go.”
Police in Victoria are investigating Bull’s photo, for which he could potentially face a fine of up to $23,000 or 12 months in prison.
Babet has previously posted on social media that the Biden administration is partly to blame for the “situation in Israel and Palestine.”
“His administration released $6 billion to Iran, a supporter of Hamas and his administration left $86 billion of weapons in Afghanistan during the botched withdrawal,” Babet wrote. “For those who say that $6 billion can only be used for humanitarian purposes, don’t be so foolish. They can simply divert whatever they had previously allocated for this purpose over to providing funding for more conflict.”
He also wrote that “there are no winners in war only losers and suffering” and that the international community must “do more to bring this conflict to an end and demand both sides sit at a negotiating table once and for all.”
“We simply cannot allow it to continue,” he said. “They have been at war in one way or another since the late 1940s. Enough is enough.”