Liberals’ liberty event draws fringe favourites

An anti-Israel campaigner and a vocal supporter of Vladimir Putin were among those to attend a Liberal Party event in Perth last week featuring senator Alex Antic.

Maram Susli is an Syrian-Australian YouTuber.

An anti-Israel campaigner and a vocal supporter of Vladimir Putin were among those to attend a Liberal Party event in Perth last week featuring Senator Alex Antic.

Maram Susli, whose Syrian Girl social media account has almost 400,000 followers and who has been described as a “Kardashian wannabe trolling for Assad”, joined Town of Port Hedland councillor and Putin supporter Adrian McRae at the event in the Perth suburb of Stirling last Tuesday.

Images from the event showed the pair talking briefly with West Australian upper house MP Nick Goiran, whose campaign organised the event, which was called “Guardians of Liberty: Safeguarding our Freedoms”.

The presence of the two controversial figures at the event has added to concerns among some Liberal members that the party is increasingly attracting those with fringe beliefs and views.

Senator Antic’s criticism of the World Economic Forum, Covid lockdowns and vaccine mandates has made him a hero in the eyes of many of the social media subcultures dedicated to peddling conspiracy theories about both the international organisation and the pandemic.

The senator, who in 2021 accused the ABC of being “institutionally anti-Semitic”, said he did not know the duo or how they came to be at the event.

“I was invited to speak at this event last week. This was not an event organised by me,” he said.

“I have no knowledge of who was on the guest list, nor was I familiar with (those) guests.”

Ms Susli’s account on X has more than 387,000 followers. This month she tweeted “Israel is a disease. And we are the cure.”

In a since-deleted tweet, she wrote: “I was born to destroy ­Israel, it is my destiny.”

She also posted an image describing eSafety commissioner Julie Inman-Grant – who has been leading a push to force X to remove footage of the recent stabbing of Bishop Emmanuel at the Assyrian Christ the Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley in Sydney – as “a Globalist WEF terrorist with an agenda”.

She also incorrectly identified a Jewish man as the perpetrator of the Bondi Junction stabbings.

Mr McRae, meanwhile, shot from obscurity after he travelled to Moscow at the invitation of Russia to monitor Putin’s re-election. While there, he gave an interview on Russian state TV in which he passed on his “most sincere congratulations” to Putin.

“In my lifetime, the world has never seen such a transparent and comprehensive victory as what we saw here over the last three days,” he said.

Mr McRae was sworn in as a Town of Port Hedland councillor soon after his return from Russia and has gone on to repeat his praise for Putin in subsequent ­interviews.

In a recent interview with Perth radio station 6PR, he said the notion – accepted by most Western nations including Australia – that the Russian government was responsible for the death of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny was “the most absurd, ridiculous line” and instead claimed he had died of a blood clot from Covid vaccinations.

Mr McRae told The Australian that he had come to know Mr Goiran over the past four years, saying he was the only MP in WA that stood publicly “on the right side of history” against the McGowan government on border closures, vaccine mandates and lockdowns.

“I have no idea as to his stance on Russia and Israel and the like. Nor do I care,” Mr McRae said.

“Because he stood up for West Australians in the way he did, I support him wholeheartedly.”

The website selling tickets to the event stated that it was organised by the “Hon Nick Goiran MLC Campaign”.

In a statement to The Australian, Mr Goiran said the event was open to anyone who wished to ­attend.

“The irony is not lost on me that while last week’s popular community forums were centred on safeguarding our freedoms, some would then call into question the liberty of citizens to freely assemble at a political event open to all,” he said.

Mr Goiran has long been an influential and controversial figure within the Liberal Party.

He was staunchly opposed to WA’s voluntary assisted dying laws and abortion reforms, and has long been perceived as the dominant factional figure in Perth’s southern suburbs.