Warren Mundine backtracks on ‘disrespectful’ gender comments after losing preselection battle to woman

The anti-voice campaigner Warren Mundine has walked back earlier comments that Gisele Kapterian had beaten him in a Liberal preselection battle in Sydney’s north shore because she was a woman.

Mundine on Wednesday dismissed any suggestion the Liberal party have a women problem as a “sideshow”. He told Guardian Australia he now vowed to do everything possible to get Kapterian elected to federal parliament.

Mundine initially congratulated Kapterian on being preselected for the seat of Bradfield but then told ABC news he believed she had triumphed over him because of her gender.

“She is entitled to her views, but I have text messages [from people in the Liberal party] regarding her being a woman,” Mundine said.

Kapterian had denounced Mundine’s comments as “disrespectful”.

Mundine, the once-Labor national president, told the Guardian on Wednesday that gender of candidates would not be a deciding factor for Australians in the upcoming election.

“They couldn’t care if you are Arthur or Martha. They just want a candidate who is going to work for them,” Mundine said.

“My focus is we need to get more Liberals in the parliament. Doesn’t matter if they’re men, women, Aboriginals or whatever.”

Kapterian earlier denounced comments from Mundine that she was preselected for the Liberal-held seat of Bradfield because she is a woman as “disrespectful”.

Mundine, who was also vying for preselection, initially congratulated Kapterian on her success but later told ABC news he believed she had triumphed over him because of her gender.

“She is entitled to her views, but I have text messages [from people in the Liberal party] regarding her being a woman,” Mundine said.

Kapterian, the Liberals’ centrist candidate for Bradfield and a former staffer to Michaelia Cash and Julie Bishop, beat Mundine’s preselection bid in the first round of voting earlier this month, 207 votes to his 171.

Kapterian had gained support from senior Liberals – including the deputy opposition leader, Sussan Ley, former Liberal treasurer Joe Hockey and former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian – to represent the party in its fight against a popular teal candidate at the upcoming federal election.

“I think to suggest I was selected for any reason other than on my merit is disrespectful not only to me and my preselectors, but also for the process itself,” Kapterian told the ABC.

Mundine had been backed by fellow leading anti-voice campaigners, including the former Liberal prime minister Tony Abbott.

Mundine, who lives in the Bradfield electorate, said that Kapterian would be his number one pick at the polls. “I’ll fight for her to be elected. I’ll do everything that’s physically possible.”

Bradfield was the only Liberal-held electorate in the country to return a majority yes vote in the voice referendum.

On Wednesday, Angus Taylor backed the preselection process, saying Kapterian had won through a “democratic plebiscite process” based on merit.

“I believe firmly in merit, and what I absolutely love about the democratic process we went through for Bradfield … is that they’re democratic processes where our members get to choose the person they want as their candidate and to represent them in this seat,” he said.

The Liberal party quietly adopted a 50-50 gender target in 2016. It was reinforced in 2022 after a post-election report by Jane Hume and former federal Liberal director Brian Loughnane recommended the party reach 50-50 representation in parliament by 2032.

But efforts to achieve gender parity have been thwarted after the retirements of a number of senior women, plummeting the gender split to decade lows.

Women account for less than a third of the party’s federal representation with nine MPs in the lower house and 10 in the Senate.

But Hume said Kapterian’s preselection for Bradfield showed the party’s plans to increase gender representation were working.

“It’s really important that we have women representing us in the Liberal party at parliamentary level, but also at an organisational level too, pushing them through the race, through to those senior roles,” she said on Wednesday.

Bradfield has only ever been held by the Liberals but is fighting off a plummeting primary vote against the rise of independent candidate Nicolette Boele.

At the 2022 election Fletcher held the blue-ribbon Bradfield with a 4.23% margin, suffering a 15.3% swing against him, after a strong showing from Boele, who achieved 20.89% of the primary vote.

Fletcher, who is retiring from politics, previously held Bradfield on a safe margin of 16.6%.

Guardian Australia reached out to Abbott, who declined to comment.