Teal candidate Nicolette Boele blames volunteer for antisemitic posts asking voters to donate 'shekels' for 'amazing bargains' in fundraising drive

Sky News AU

21-04-2025

A Teal candidate in one of New South Wales' biggest Jewish seats has blamed a volunteer for antisemitic posts made under her name.
Nicolette Boele's posts were found to be so concerning, they were featured in a report on antisemitism by Australia's peak Jewish representative body.
Sky News can reveal the resurfaced posts were published during the last election and included in a 2023 report on antisemitism by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ).
Ms Boele is the independent candidate for the seat of Bradfield in north Sydney, the electorate with the second largest Jewish population in the state after Wentworth.
In a Facebook post on October 4, 2022, Ms Boele wrote:
'It has been encouragingly suggested today that #TeamNic are demonstrating considerable 'chutzpah' in planning to open Australia's first Shadow Representative Electorate Office right here in #Bradfield… we really could use some more shekels to maintain our chutzpah…some absolutely amazing bargains on offer!'
In a tweet published on the same day, she wrote:
'We really could use some more sheckles (sic) to maintain our chutzpah, so please consider bidding in our Spring Auctions. There's (sic) still some amazing bargains on offer!'
Both posts, which appear to have since been deleted, linked to an online auction platform.
The ECAJ report noted the posts used 'Hebrew/Jewish terms (chutzpah, shekels) in calling for donations, offering bargains, and thus using and reinforcing the stereotype of Jews and money."
In a statement to Sky News, Ms Boele said the posts were written by a volunteer no longer working on her campaign.
'A volunteer wrote a disgraceful, antisemitic Facebook post on my page in 2022,' Ms Boele said.
'I took responsibility for the post and apologized for it.
'Wherever antisemitism appears, political leaders have a responsibility to call it out.
'The volunteer who wrote the post is not volunteering or working on my campaign.
'I will always call out antisemitism.
'The rise in antisemitism in recent years, including incidents in my electorate, is a stain on our nation and we must all do whatever we can to stamp it out.'
Sky News has also obtained a survey Ms Boele completed for ECAJ last week, in which she rejects the idea of a judicial inquiry into antisemitism at universities, proposed by Jewish Liberal MP and shadow assistant minister for foreign affairs Julian Leeser.
Ms Boele is asked in the survey if she would advocate for the next government to conduct a judicial inquiry into antisemitism at Australian universities, including an investigation into whether there has been foreign funding of student protests.
She replies that while she does believe foreign funding should be investigated, she has 'concerns that a judicial inquiry would increase social division and lead to more protests that make campuses even more unsafe for Jewish Australians'.
Ms Boele says in the survey she would advocate the next government make it a condition of receiving Federal funding each university bans encampments, but is against tying funding to banning the disruption of lectures and tutorials by protesters and preventing external organisations or individuals from orchestrating protest activities on campus.
"We have to balance (the) right to peaceful protest with the right to be free from discrimination,' she answered in response to questions on the letter two points."
Ms Boele confirms she would not lobby the next government to demand literary and cultural festival boards have a balance of political representation as a condition of receiving federal grants.
She was also hesitant on whether federal grants come with a condition the recipient does not promote racism.
'(I'm) open to it but don't want the measure to be so broad as to risk undue government interference with cultural institutions,' Ms Boele says.
Both Ms Boele and her Liberal rival Gisele Kapterian are due to front the Bradfield Election Forum being hosted by ECAJ and the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies on Tuesday night to answer questions from Jewish voters.
Bradfield has been held by the Liberals for 75 years, but became a key Teal target following the abolishment of the neighboring seat of North Sydney, held by fellow independent Kylea Tink, and the retirement of sitting MP Paul Fletcher.
In the last election, Ms Boele scored 21 per cent of the primary vote and a 12.3 per cent swing away from the Liberals on a two-party preferred basis.
She rebranded herself the 'Shadow Representative for Bradfield', even cutting the ribbon for her new 'shadow' electorate office alongside her backer, Climate 200 founder Simon Holmes à Court.
The revelation of the antisemitic posts are the latest scandal to beset Ms Boele.
The independent candidate was earlier this month banned from her local hairdresser Envy Room Salon in Gordon after making a sexualised joke to a teenage hairdressing apprentice.
Ms Boele told the 19-year-old her hair wash was 'amazing and I didn't even have sex with you'.
The candidate apologised, saying it was 'a poor attempt at humour… Everyone deserves to feel respected in their workplace and I'll do better".
It has also emerged the candidate's campaign accepted donations from a funds management company founder who invested heavily in fossil fuel businesses.
The managing director at Samuel Terry Asset Management, Fred Woollard, was listed on Ms Boele's website under donors whose gifts had totaled more than $1,500 during the 2024-25 financial year.
Mr Woollard told the Daily Telegraph while his firm invested in assets including oil and gas companies, 'in my private life I like to encourage climate change action'.