High-profile anti-Voice campaigner Warren Mundine has lost to tech executive Gisele Kapterian in the NSW Liberal Party’s preselection for the blue-ribbon Sydney seat of Bradfield.
Kapterian won more than 200 votes today, as opposed to Mundine’s 171.
The defeat marks a critical point for the party’s faction on its ideology with Mundine representing the conservative wing, supported by former prime minister Tony Abbott and frontbencher Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, and Kapterian representing the moderates, backed by former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian and Deputy Liberal Leader Sussan Ley.
“We present an alternative trajectory and a different vision for the future,” Kapterian said.
Mundine, the former Labor Party president turned strong campaigner against Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s Indigenous Voice to parliament, congratulated Kapterian on her win, adding that she is a “great candidate”.
The Bradfield seat, which is a pro-Voice seat, is crucial for the Liberals to retain if they hope to win the federal election this year.
“We don’t take any seat for granted, not one single seat across this country,” Ley said.
But the long-held Liberal seat is being challenged by Teals candidate Nicolette Boele, who cut retiring Bradfield MP Paul Fletcher’s margin down to 4.5 per cent at the last election in 2022.
In a statement, Boele congratulated Kapterian on her pre-selection, adding that she looked forward to the election campaign where she would advocate for a local representative who reflected the community rather than a political party.
“We are a great country, but the major party duopoly is holding us back from finding sensible solutions to these problems,” she said.
“Bradfield has been held by one party for 75 years. If elected, I’ll draw on my experience in finance, clean energy and government, and will advocate for common-sense reforms to address the problems the major parties have created.”
