Ralph Babet is a danger to democracy

Senator Ralph Babet is a dangerous man. A MAGA spearhead with billionaire backing and an obvious sympathy for rapists and fraudsters.

Does he understand what a Donald Trump presidency would do to Australia? Can he really be that thick?

Or maybe, like his hero, he is a traitor who wants for the end of democracy.

Thanks to Clive Palmer and his $100 million-plus war chest, Ralph snatched the sixth Victorian Senate seat for Clive’s United Australia Party from the risible Greg Mirabella at the 2022 Election.

Following the playbook of their traitorous American idols, Clive and Ralph claimed the Australian Electoral Commission engaged in electoral fraud, so they spat the dummy and shut down the party, leaving Ralph in a weird place.

In September 2022, Babet issued a media release saying:

While the party has elected not to remain part of the AEC fiasco between elections, it will re-register prior to the next federal election.

 

Because I am a Senator, the party has a right to re-register at any time and in the meantime, we will not be directed by an unelected body of public servants under the control of Government.

Complete rubbish, of course.

As reported in The Guardian:

‘The Australian Electoral Commission says it has seen no evidence to support Clive Palmer’s election night accusation that its staff were taking home ballots, describing the suggestion as “frustrating and disappointing”.’

The MAGA king certainly knows who Ralph is. Ralph made sure he does.

A couple of months before his ‘God willing’ tweet, Ralph wrote directly to his king telling him he is a beacon of freedom, slagging President Joe Biden for wrecking the joint, a cringeworthy ‘I cannot begin to imagine the forces aligned against you’, you have a fan base in our parliament, yada yada yada.

A master class in sucking up. Trump immediately posted it to his Truth Social site, saying, ‘Thank you to Senator Babet of Australia!’

The post only got 452 likes, but the real estate agent from Narre Warren is now firmly on Trump’s radar. You never know, it could come in handy in the New World Chaos.

In the meantime, though, there are things to do and bullshit to spread.

And spread it he does.

From trans to vaccines (he hates needles), from government overreach to “what warming?”, Ralph is out there with a rake.

A recent favourite is his push for Red Unions.

On 18 October 2023, Babet stood in the Senate and started going on about supposed excessive death rates caused by vaccines:

“Thankfully, there was one group that didn't turn their backs on the Australian people in their time of need: the medical experts at the Australian Medical Professionals Society, otherwise known as AMPS. They stepped up to the plate and did the hard work that my colleagues in this place, unfortunately and shamefully, refused to do.”

As you might expect, this loftily titled society is a crock.

In 2021, the Sydney Morning Herald reported:

‘A set of “fake unions” with links to current and former Liberal and National party figures are capitalising on anti-vaccination fears to recruit doctors, teachers and nurses and exploit dissent within the labour movement about mandatory vaccinations.’

According to the Aitken Legal website:

‘Unregistered “fake” unions have increased their presence in Queensland and New South Wales, and are actively supporting the anti-mandate movement in respect of COVID-19 vaccinations. These organisations are targeting new members in the nursing, teaching and law enforcement industries.’

These fake unions are known as Red Unions. AMPS is a Red Union.

According to the Red Union website:

'The Red Union Support Hub is the umbrella organisation that supports nurses, teachers, doctors, police officers, transport workers and miscellaneous workers all across Australia.'

One Red Union is the Nurses Professional Association of Queensland.

Employeeinfo.com states:

The Nurses Professional Association of Queensland was founded by Graeme Haycroft.

 

Graeme Haycroft is a former labour-hire firm operator who established non-union construction sites in Queensland.

 

He has a long history with the Liberal National Party and once headed up the Liberal-National Party’s Industrial Relations Committee.

 

Haycroft also has a long history with the HR Nicholls Society, an anti-union, anti-worker, pro-big business think tank with deep ties to the Liberal Party.

 

He once ran a company which helped business move workers off awards and collective agreements and on to “AWAs”, individual agreements that stripped back workers’ pay and conditions.

 

Haycroft’s company was reported to have targeted vulnerable workers who were low-skilled, low-paid and often had poor English. His company was sanctioned by the Office of the Employment Advocate after a complaint from a worker.

Haycroft is behind all the Red Unions. They are all companies.

As reported in the Sydney Morning Herald:

‘In recent months, Red Union has branched out, unveiling the Nurses Professional Association of Australia, Teachers Professional Association of Australia, Professional Drivers Association of Australia, Australian Medical Professionals’ Society and a soon-to-be-launched police association. It also began to focus on opposing rules from some states requiring all workers in high-risk industries such as healthcare to be vaccinated.’

Red Unions are clearly bullshit of the kind Ralph loves so dearly.

According to the Independent Education Union of Australia:

The Red Union lost a court case in Queensland in July 2021 that found them not to be a trade union. From the judgement: 

 

[116] I cannot accept the Applicant's submission that the NPAQ is a “trade union”. It must follow therefore that the Applicant could not have engaged in “trade union activity” on NPAQ’s behalf within the meaning of the term in s 295 of the IR Act. 

 

Read the full judgement.

Pushing fake unions is just the tip of Ralph’s aversion to mainstream Western democracy.

Is Ralph a sucker or does he really believe his bullshit?

The man deals in suburban real estate so you’d think his bullshit radar would be half decent; he’s seen a few scams in his time.

But, also, he doesn’t present as a sucker.

That leaves the uncomfortable option that he knows exactly what he is doing.

A dangerous man.

Ross Jones is IA's investigations editor and the author of 'Ashbygate: The Plot to Destroy Australia's Speaker'. You can follow Ross on Twitter @rpzjones_fin.