Ralph Babet

Biography

Ralph Emmanuel Didier “Deej” Babet is an Australian politician and member of the United Australia Party. He was elected to represent Victoria in the Australian Senate in the 2022 federal election and began his six-year term on July 1, 2022.

Babet was born on June 29, 1983, in Rodrigues, Mauritius. His family migrated to Australia in 1990, and he became an Australian citizen in 1993. French was his first language. He grew up in Doveton and attended Holy Family Catholic Primary School and St John’s Regional College in Dandenong. Babet holds a Bachelor of Business degree from Swinburne University of Technology and an advanced diploma in sales and marketing from the Chisholm Institute.

Babet has had legal issues in the past, including charges of criminal damage and unlawful assault. He runs a real estate firm with his brother Matt, who unsuccessfully contested the seat of Bruce in the 2022 federal election.

Babet renounced his Mauritian citizenship in March 2022 to avoid being disqualified from the Australian Parliament by Section 44 of the Constitution of Australia. He was the only successful United Australia Party candidate at the 2022 federal election, winning the sixth Victorian senate seat from the Liberal Party’s Greg Mirabella. Babet’s win was attributed to strong One Nation preference flows once One Nation was excluded.

The United Australia Party was voluntarily deregistered by the Australian Electoral Commission on September 8, 2022. However, Babet can continue identifying as a United Australia Party member in the Senate.

Babet’s political views include being against vaccine mandates and the “ever-growing power and authoritarianism of the government.” He believes that vaccine mandates are “segregation” and considers the vaccine to be “emergency gene therapy.” He also promotes conspiracy theories, including the idea that the 2022 election was going to be rigged and that the Great Reset initiative of the World Economic Forum is a plot to create a tyrannical world government. Babet has been critical of the “billionaire circus” of the World Economic Forum but has praised some billionaires, including Clive Palmer and Elon Musk.

Babet believes that transgender issues should not be taught at schools, saying he disagrees with “little boys and girls being taught that you can be a boy one day and a girl the next day.” He also does not believe that the science of climate change is settled or that humans are responsible for its cause. On energy solutions, he believes that “solar panels and batteries are bad for the environment.”

In his opening Senate speech, Babet spoke of his disdain for “radical Marxists.” He considers his $200,000 salary a “pay cut” and believes that it is too little for the “suffering” he will endure in parliament. He has stated that he does not intend to run for more than one term.