Julian Leeser

Biography

Julian Martin Leeser is an Australian politician and member of the Liberal Party. He was born on May 25, 1976, in Sydney to a family with a diverse background. His father, John, was the son of Jewish refugees who fled Nazi Germany, while his mother, Sylvia, is a fifth-generation Australian whose father was a survivor of the Burma Railway.

Leeser received his Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) and Bachelor of Laws degrees from the University of New South Wales. He started his political career at a young age, becoming an independent local councillor on Woollahra Council for Bellevue Hill Ward at just 19 years old. He was estimated to be the youngest local councillor elected in NSW history.

Leeser served as an adviser for Tony Abbott, the Minister for Workplace Relations, in 2001 and for Philip Ruddock between 2004 and 2006. He also worked as a solicitor for Mallesons Stephen Jaques from 2002 to 2004. In 2006, he became the executive director of the Menzies Research Centre, and later the Director of Government Policy & Strategy at the Australian Catholic University in July 2012.

Leeser joined the Liberal Party in 1992 and was elected to parliament in 2016 in the Division of Berowra, succeeding the retiring Philip Ruddock. He has held various positions in parliament, including as Shadow Attorney-General and Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians. After the 2019 election, he became the chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Migration and the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Indigenous Affairs. In 2022, he was elevated to Peter Dutton’s shadow ministry as the Shadow Attorney-General and Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians.

Leeser is married to Joanna Davidson and has two children, James, born in 2018, and Ruth, born in 2022. He lives with his family in Thornleigh. Leeser is the first Jewish Liberal member of the House of Representatives from New South Wales and a member of the Emanuel Synagogue in Woollahra.

In April 2023, Leeser resigned from the opposition cabinet after the Liberal Party resolved to oppose the Voice to parliament referendum. Leeser has been identified as a member of either the moderate or centre-right faction of the Liberal Party.