Warren Mundine ‘back in the game’ despite Liberal preselectors saying no
No vote campaigner Warren Mundine says he’s ‘back in the game’ despite losing Saturday’s Bradfield Liberal preselection as moderates rejected claims of factional infighting.
No vote campaigner Nyunggai Warren Mundine has declared he’s “back in the game” despite losing Saturday’s Bradfield Liberal preselection to tech executive Gisele Kapterian as moderates poured cold water on Anthony Albanese’s claims of factional infighting.
On Saturday, Salesforce executive Gisele Kapterian pipped Mr Mundine to become the party’s candidate in retiring Paul Fletcher’s blue-ribbon seat, to take on teal Nicolette Boele.
Winning 207 votes to Mr Mundine’s 171, Ms Kapterian, the party’s former North Sydney candidate prior to its abolishment, emerged victorious in the first round of voting.
Mr Mundine – backed by the party’s right, including former prime minister Tony Abbott and the opposition’s Indigenous Australians spokeswoman Jacinta Nampijinpa Price – said the small margin of defeat showed he had made a political comeback.
“It (the preselection) has stirred me up, I’m back in the game,” Mr Mundine said, promising to campaign for the party in razor-thin marginals in western Sydney and NSW’s south coast. “Mundine is back in the ring and fighting for Australians.”
Mr Mundine would not confirm whether he’d look to run in any of the party’s remaining preselections for this year’s federal election, instead saying he’d focus on a “two-fold campaign”.
“It’s up to Gisele to retain the seat, it’s a big job ahead for her,” Mr Mundine said. “And it’s (about) building my support base … We won the support of locals (in Bradfield), it was the central office and the ‘wets’ who came after me.
“Mundines get knocked down and we get back up again; I’ve learnt a lot from this … Imagine if we had months, not days, to put a campaign together.”
The Liberals will face a fight to retain Bradfield given the candidacy of Ms Boele, who ran the now-retiring MP close in 2022.
Ms Kapterian should provide the party a better chance at retaining the seat, given she has campaigned across swaths of the area that now falls into Bradfield.
Her moderate politics and centrist stance should also resonate more with an electorate that is following the lead of neighbouring divisions in moving more towards Climate 200’s community independent politics.
Mr Mundine’s fighting vow followed reports of infighting after the result, with right-faction members lending their vote to Ms Kapterian, to the chagrin of some on the party’s right, something the Prime Minister immediately pounced on.
“While my government is concentrating on fighting for Australians, the Liberals in Sydney have been fighting with each other,” he said in southwest Sydney while announcing a $1bn upgrade to a key transit corridor to the new western Sydney airport.
“It appears (there’s a) declaration of war that’s been made by unknown people as a result of the Bradfield preselection ... The ongoing internal war within the Liberal Party will just continue.”
Liberal moderates rubbished that suggestion, pointing to how “centrist” Ms Kapterian had to pull votes from each faction of the party and saying she was a “uniting” figure who stood the best chance of retaining the seat.
“The ‘left v right’ factional narrative has helped no one, least of all our now polarised society,” said Hilma’s Network founder Charlotte Mortlock, whose organisation promotes female Liberal voices and candidates.
“Gisele is a fierce centrist who steers clear of the fringes on both sides at all costs. She’s not a factional lapdog because she doesn’t need to be. She has her own big brain to use, and she is a candidate who will unite the party.”
Ms Mortlock said Mr Albanese’s suggestion was inaccurate and reports of disunity were exaggerated. “Warren’s commentary right after the preselection was positive and gracious, and the mood in the room after the result was largely unified,” she said.
“Aside from a vocal few, the party is absolutely not divided over this. They are united behind our candidate and focused on winning the seat.”
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