Julian Leeser


Julian Martin Leeser is an Australian politician. He is a member of the Liberal Party and has represented the Division of Berowra since the 2016 federal election.

Early life

Leeser was born in Sydney. His father John, an accountant, was the son of Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany, while his mother Sylvia is a fifth-generation Australian whose father was a survivor of the Burma Railway.
Leeser holds the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws from the University of New South Wales. He sat on Woollahra Council from 1995 to 1999. At the time, he was the youngest local councillor ever elected in Australia. In 1999 he served as a member of Prime Minister John Howard's No campaign during the republic referendum. In 2000, he was an associate to Justice Ian Callinan of the High Court of Australia.
Leeser worked as an adviser for Minister for Workplace Relations Tony Abbott in 2001 and for Philip Ruddock between 2004 and 2006. He worked as a solicitor for Mallesons Stephen Jaques between 2002 and 2004. In 2006 he joined the Menzies Research Centre as Executive Director, before becoming Director of Government Policy & Strategy at the Australian Catholic University in July 2012.
Leeser has written several articles defending the legacy of Prime Minister William McMahon, as well as an obituary of his wife Sonia for The Australian. He authored McMahon's entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, and as of 2016 was working on a full-length biography.

Parliament

Leeser joined the Liberal Party in 1992 and served as vice-president of the Liberal Party of Australia from 2015 to 2016. He was elected to parliament at the 2016 federal election, succeeding the retiring Philip Ruddock in the Division of Berowra. In his maiden speech he spoke of the impact of his father's suicide when he was 20 years old. He has been identified as a member of the moderate wing of the party.
After the 2019 election Leeser became chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Migration and the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Indigenous Affairs.

Personal life

Leeser is married to Joanna Davidson and has one son, born in 2018.