Gisele Kapterian, the Liberal candidate for the Sydney seat of Bradfield, has been forced to defend her credibility after Nyunggai Warren Mundine claimed she was only picked for the seat because she was a woman.
Speaking to the ABC, Kapterian, a tech executive, lawyer and former political staffer, said it was disrespectful to suggest she was preselected for any reason other than her merit.
Kapterian recently won preselection for the Liberal Party over Mundine in Bradfield as the party looks to retain the seat in the face of fierce competition from independent candidate, Nicolette Boele. Boele, who is backed by Climate 200, is contesting the seat for a second time.
Kapterian was backed by the moderate faction of the party for preselection and was endorsed by deputy leader Sussan Ley and former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian. Mundine, on the other hand, was being supported by the right-wing of the party and the likes of former prime minister, Tony Abbott.
The fact that Kapterian, a highly accomplished candidate, has now been forced to defend her “merit” is a sad reminder of how far the Liberal Party needs to come.
In the wake of its 2022 federal election loss, where many women voters deserted the party in favour of independents, it’s more important than ever that women see themselves reflected in the candidates they are voting for.
As the Liberal Party’s own internal review said, getting more women into its ranks is crucial if it wants to attract the women voters it needs to win government. The review called for a target of 50 per cent female representation in parliament within a decade. So far, the party is failing miserably, with mostly men preselected in seats where current Liberal MPs are retiring.
Against this backdrop, there’s no doubt that Kapterian’s preselection was the right choice for the party in Bradfield. Quite simply, she was the best person for the job.
Mundine, on the other hand, was a leader in the ‘No’ campaign during the Voice referendum and is completely mismatched with the values of the Bradfield electorate, which was the only Liberal-held electorate in the country to return a majority ‘Yes’ vote. The electorate neighbours seats like North Sydney, where independent Kylea Tink won convincingly in 2022.
That Mundine believes Kapterian only won preselection because she is a woman points to a broader issue the party must grapple with.
As long as older men continue to hold the power in the Liberal Party, the preselection of a woman like Kapterian is always going to be viewed within the party as tokenistic and unfair.
And as Dutton focuses his appeal on young male voters and Mundine doubles down on his comments about women, the Liberal Party is at real risk of losing another of its once blue-ribbon seats to the teal wave.
Feature image: Gisele Kapterian.