Victorian Senator Ralph Babet facing condemnation for circulating Sydney church stabbing video

A Victorian senator is facing criticism for sharing a video of the Sydney church stabbing on social media, while telling the Australian government and e-safety commissioner to “go f--k” themselves.

Victorian Senator Ralph Babet is facing widespread condemnation for circulating a video of the violent Sydney church stabbing on social media.

The United Australia Party senator on Tuesday reposted the video on X with the message “to the Australian government and the eSafety commissioner go f--k yourselves”.

The post comes after the Federal Court on Monday night granted an interim injunction ordering Elon Musk’s X to remove the video of last week’s alleged terrorist act.

“This is appalling behaviour by a serving Senator and he needs to explain why he’s sharing this harmful content,” Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said.

“The Albanese government supports efforts by the eSafety Commissioner to have this content removed from digital platforms in Australia.”

Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was attacked at a Sydney church.

Greens communications spokeswoman, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, accused Senator Babet of being an “attention seeker suffering from relevance deprivation” and questioned whether he was fit to be in the parliament.

“He has no respect for the victims of violence and clearly no care for law enforcement,” she said.

“His pathetic stunt is foolish, and irresponsible.

“The public will rightly ask if he’s up for the job of being a responsible member of parliament.”

Opposition communications spokesman David Coleman also strongly condemned Senator Babet’s post saying it was “violent and disturbing material that can be seen by children”.

“The eSafety Commissioner plays a very important role in enforcing the Online Safety Act – that was legislated by the Coalition – and we fully support her,” Mr Coleman said.

Victorian Senator Ralph Babet is facing widespread condemnation for circulating a video of the violent Sydney church stabbing. Picture: Gary Ramage

Senator Babet is refusing to remove the video, claiming that “without free speech our nation will fall” and that the Liberals, Labor and eSafety Commissioner “are a threat to democracy”.

In a statement, he accused the government of targeting X because it was run by a “free speech advocate” and it posed “a threat to their control of information”.

“Apparently it’s a heinous crime now to allow real people to post real videos of what really happened in real life,” he said.

“Turns out our politicians don’t like real life.

“They would much prefer us to live in a world carefully curated by an E-Safety Karen who decides what we may and may not see.”

Originally published as Victorian Senator Ralph Babet facing condemnation for circulating Sydney church stabbing video