Gisele Kapterian: ‘This is a personal fight’
"This is not something that's academic for me – this is a personal fight, because of my own family's history."
Willoughby resident and Liberal candidate for Bradfield Gisele Kapterian claims that being the granddaughter of survivors of the Armenian genocide who moved to Jerusalem for safety, and as the daughter of parents who also lived in Israel’s capital before migrating to Sydney – naturally makes her “an extremely strong advocate for the issues that our Jewish community is facing right now”.
“This is not something that’s academic for me – this is a personal fight, because of my own family’s history,” she said.
“When my parents moved here and had me, they wanted to make sure I understood where they’d come from, so they enrolled me in North Shore Temple Emanuel’s (NSTE) pre-school.
“That was just the start of a longstanding relationship for me with the area’s Jewish community.”
Kapterian noted Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s multi-million dollar funding promise for improving security at Jewish institutions in Sydney, and past funding grants secured for Masada College and NSTE by retiring Bradfield MP Paul Fletcher.
“I think the people of Bradfield recognise the strong leadership of the Liberal Party on these important issues, including the fight against antisemitism.
“I’ve seen the relationship between Israel and Australia grow, when I was a staffer to Julie Bishop and Steve Ciobo in the Foreign Affairs and Trade portfolios, and feel there is so much more that we can build on.”
She said it was outrageous that the Labor government provided $20 million to UNRWA, and then committed another $11 million in the budget.
“It was very clear that a terrorist organisation had infiltrated, and had significant ties to, UNRWA, so how the government continued funding it is beyond me.”
Kapterian – who has an international trade background and worked for the past six years in the tech sector – said she was motivated to enter politics because Australia gave her immigrant family so much.
“At a time when our living standards are declining so significantly, families are hurting and 29,000 small businesses have closed, I felt I needed to stand and do something.”
She sees the rising cost of living and maintaining social cohesion as the two key election issues.
“A Coalition government would permanently reinstate and increase the instant asset write off to support small businesses, deliver a gas reservation policy to keep the lights on and lower household energy bills, stop wasteful spending of taxpayers’ money and invest $9 billion into Medicare.”
comments