Hedland councillor Adrian McRae doubles down on Putin election claims on A Current Affair

Newly elected Port Hedland councillor Adrian McRae has doubled down on claims Russia’s recent election was the most transparent the world had ever seen as he was grilled on national television last night. Appearing on A Current Affair on Monday, Mr McRae was grilled by host Ally Langdon who asked why the councillor had travelled to Russia to observe the election. “I had a chance meeting with the Russian ambassador in Sydney back in January and he mentioned Russia was looking for scrutineers to go to Russia and have a look at their election process,” Mr McRae said. “They are very proud of their democracy and their electoral process, they have 89,000 voting booths across the country, over 300,0000 volunteers.” When Ms Langdon asked whether Mr McRae believed Russia was a democracy, he said “absolutely it’s a democracy “. “Before I went there, I went over there with sort of a few, probably media driven preconceived notions,” he said “But coming back ... their democracy is more transparent and more certainly more professionally run, the logistics and management of their election process leads anything I’ve seen certainly in the West.” The councillor also criticised Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong for not condemning the recent terrorist attack at the the Crocus City Hall in Moscow which killed 144. “She doesn’t have the decency or the compassion or the integrity to condemn or criticise the terrorist attacks on the people of Russian,” he said. Mr McRae flew to Russia in March to participate as an election scrutineer after being invited by Russian Ambassador to Australia Alexey Pavlovsky. Post-election, footage published by Channel One State News showed Mr McRae, the former Great Australia Party candidate for Durack in the 2022 election, congratulating Russian President Vladimir Putin on his victory. “Can I please pass on sincere congratulations to Mr Vladimir Putin,” he said. “In my memory, the world has never seen such a transparent and comprehensive victory as what we saw here over the last three days.” Mr McRae’s comments sparked outrage across Australia’s political spectrum with Premier Roger Cook calling the commentary bizarre. “I don’t think that’s the sort of thing we expect our local government authority councillors to get up to,” he said. “I hope that he will obviously be counselled by the town of Port Hedland in terms of his conduct, but I also expect the people of Port Hedland to express their dissatisfaction with that next time to have that opportunity.” The Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations condemned Mr McRae’s support for the Russian President labelling his comments “sickening” and called for the councillors resignation. “Adrian McRae has shown a shocking lack of judgment by offering his support for Putin’s recent sham election,” AFUO co-chair Stefan Romaniw said. “Putin’s Russia is no democracy. Opposition figures are murdered, jailed, forced abroad, or barred from running; the independent media has been quashed; voter fraud, manipulation and intimidation are standard practices. “McRae’s views are completely out of step with those in his community and he is unfit to be their representative. “The AFUO calls on Cr McRae to resign and will be writing to the City of Port Hedland to urge that he be formally sanctioned for his behaviour.” President Vladimir Putin won 87.8 per cent of the vote, the highest result in Russia’s post-Soviet history, according to an exit poll by pollster the Public Opinion Foundation. The result means Mr Putin, 71, easily secured a new six-year term that would enable him to overtake Joseph Stalin and become Russia’s longest-serving leader for more than 200 years. Speaking on March 18, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the election was “not something that met “any kind of benchmark of being free or fair”.