Warren Mundine loses teal target seat preselection as Liberals pick tech executive

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Tech executive Gisele Kapterian has overcome an intense lobbying campaign by Tony Abbott and the Liberal Party’s conservative wing to secure preselection for the Sydney seat of Bradfield – a target of the teal movement at this year’s federal election – defeating Indigenous figure Nyunggai Warren Mundine.

Kapterian, who had the support of party moderates, won a majority in the first round of voting, gaining just over 200 votes to Mundine’s 170, while cardiologist Michael Feneley received 16. It was the NSW Liberal division’s largest-ever lower house preselection content, reflecting the size of branches in the blue-blood territory.

Nyunggai Warren Mundine, Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley and Liberal candidate for Bradfield Gisele Kapterian.Credit: Dan Peled, Rhett Wyman, James Brickwood

It means the former trade lawyer and senior staffer to Julie Bishop and Michaelia Cash will run as the Liberal candidate against independent challenger Nicolette Boele, who is backed by the teal funding vehicle Climate 200.

The teals are confident of winning Bradfield, a seat held by retiring Liberal MP Paul Fletcher, making it crucial to Peter Dutton’s chances of winning the election due by May. Bradfield covers a wealthy area of Sydney’s north shore, including St Ives and Chatswood.

The preselection race had become a test of the influence of the right-wing establishment within local Liberal branches in blue-ribbon party territory. Former prime minister Tony Abbott and popular frontbencher Jacinta Nampijinpa Price both lobbied members to pick Mundine, a strident conservative who has recently called for a rethink on Indigenous Welcome to Country ceremonies.

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Abbott spent recent days calling local branch members to encourage them to support Mundine, according to three Liberal sources involved in the preselection. Mundine, the sources said, was going door-to-door meeting with rank-and-file members, an unusual move in a preselection that displayed the intensity of the contest with Kapterian.

Source said the preselection meeting was cordial and respectful, with all candidates asked their positions in policy including nuclear energy.

Mundine’s opponents were worried that his candidacy would result in the Liberals losing the seat because his conservative views, and advocacy against the Voice to parliament, may have jarred with voters in the only Liberal seat that voted in favour of the Voice referendum question in 2023.

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