‘Not just a win for Bradfield': Libs' Kapterian seizes seat on a razor-thin margin
The Liberal Party has managed to hold the once blue-ribbon seat of Bradfield on Sydney's north shore, with Gisele Kapterian just edging out teal Nicolette Boele after more than a week of counting.
Kapterian, a former international trade and human rights lawyer, is expected to join the federal party room meeting in Canberra on Tuesday, when MPs will vote to choose a new leader after former leader Peter Dutton was ousted from parliament.
One of the leadership hopefuls, Angus Taylor, opposed Kapterian's preselection, instead supporting anti-Voice campaigner Warren Mundine, despite Bradfield being the only Liberal-held seat in the country to vote yes in the referendum.
Absentee and postal votes ultimately favoured Kapterian, which pushed her ahead of Boele despite the independent being marginally in front on election night.
NSW Liberal senator and former party president Maria Kovacic said Kapterian's win demonstrated the standard of candidate that voters demanded of the party.
'Gisele Kapterian is exactly the kind of voice we need at the table if we are serious about winning back metropolitan Australia,' Kovacic said.
'This is not just a win for Bradfield, this is a clear step towards restoring the type of centrist and credible politics we need in our party and that our country demands from us.'
NSW shadow attorney-general Alister Henskens, who was the Bradfield federal electorate conference president for many years before entering state politics, said if Kapterian had more time on the ground to campaign, she would have secured a bigger win.
'Gisele is incredibly smart, she has a Master of Laws from Cambridge University, has worked as a human rights lawyer in Africa and also at the World Trade organisation,' Henskens said.
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