High Steaks: Julian Leeser talks about why he entered politics and what drives him

It was a Paul Keating tax on flavoured milk that piqued a young Julian Leeser’s interest in politics, but now the MP is driven by fighting for a fairer society for all.

One of the things about politicians, both left and right, is that so many of them have a similar origin story.

Labor former prime minister Paul Keating’s economic deregulation crusade, for example, was in no small part inspired by his father’s regular battles with the banks as he tried to expand his Bankstown engineering business.

And, in one of those funny twists of fate, it was watching Paul Keating deliver a budget as a boy that would wind up planting the seed of politics in Liberal MP Julian Leeser’s head.

“My father was an accountant, we’d always watch the Budget,” Leeser laughs over a Riverina eye fillet steak at The Epping Club in his north shore electorate of Berowra.

“And I remember being nine or 10, and (Keating) was taxing computer disks and flavoured milk, and I thought, ‘I drink ­flavoured milk and we’ve got a computer with computer disks’, and I thought this was just outrageous!”

Julian Leeser at lunch at The Epping Club. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Four decades later, Leeser sits on the Coalition frontbench as shadow attorney-general, a role that would likely be made official if Peter Dutton pulls off a historic first-term victory against Labor in May.

Yet Leeser, who entered parliament in 2016, has had perhaps a rougher time in opposition than many of his colleagues.

A young Julian Leeser with his father John.

Proudly Jewish, Leeser has had to suffer the barbs of anti-Semitism along with the rest of his community in the year and a half since Hamas’s October 7 massacres in 2023.

In the months before that, Leeser – a staunch supporter of the Yes campaign for the Voice – stepped out of shadow cabinet and on to the back bench and received perhaps more than his fair share of criticism for not backing the party’s No stance.

Leeser says he “copped some criticism” but made the decision because “at the end of the day, you’ve got to be able to look yourself in the in the face you’ve got to be able to look your kids in the face, and show my kids sometimes in life you’ve got to stand for things even if it cost you, even if it hurts.”

But when it comes to Labor’s management of post-October 7 Australia, Leeser doesn’t mince words.

“The federal government’s response has been confused right from the beginning,” he says.

“I’ve used the analogy that running a society’s like running a family,” Leeser, a father of two, continues.

Journalist James Morrow (left) and Julian Leeser sit down for their High Steaks interview. Picture: Jonathan Ng

“Child psychologists tell you that if you’ve got little kids, it’s really important to set boundaries and enforce boundaries and the kids actually crave boundaries.”

“And societies are the same. The problem in Australia is right from October 8th when you had that sheik in Western Sydney, and October 9 at the Opera House, when people were pushing the boundaries, there was no one saying ‘no, there’s consequences’.”

If the otherwise mild-mannered and affable Leeser is cross with Labor, he is positively ropeable about the Greens, who he worries are going to do preference deals with the ALP and gain the upper hand in a minority government situation.

“They’re an anti-Semitic party,” he says frankly.

“They’re a racist party, and, you know, people will get elected to the Senate next time on the back of Labor Party ­preferences.

An Israeli flag is set on fire at the pro-Palestine protest at the Opera House on October 9, 2023. Picture: Jeremy Piper

“We know the Greens wanted to de-fund the police, we know they wanted to de-fund the army.

“We know they want to get rid of private health insurance and the funding of non-government schools.

“And this will just increase people’s costs and be a recipe for social disharmony in this country, so I can’t believe the Prime Minister cannot clearly say that they will put the Greens last.”

Yet, despite the months of seemingly anti-Semitic attacks around Sydney, Leeser strikes an optimistic tone.

Surveying the scene below the balcony where we have perched for our interview, while tucking into steaks, truffle mash, and grilled mushrooms so meaty they could almost make High Steaks go vego, Leeser lauds the multicultural nature of his electorate which has large Chinese and Indian-Australian populations.

Pointing to the emerging local skyline, Leeser admits to “growing pains” with density, but says that government must be focused on getting people into their own homes.

Slamming build-to-rent schemes, Leeser says his party “wants Australians to own their own homes”.

Julian Leeser his wife Joanna after the birth of their son James. Picture: Supplied

“I think a major fault line of this election is the difference in home ownership,” he says.

“Labor, the Greens and the teals, they want people renting for their whole life.”.

Keenly aware of his own migrant heritage – his grandparents fled to Australia from Nazi Germany, while on the other side his first Australian ancestor, Abraham Jacob Solomon, travelled from London to Adelaide in 1849 to become the emerging settlement’s first Jewish cantor – Leeser is clearly proud of his local community and the many faiths they bring to the area.

As we chat I notice a band of cloth around his wrist, given to him he says by worshippers at the local Swaminarayan temple.

“I’ll wear this ‘til the election’s finished … I mean people pray for me right across their own traditions and I draw strength from that.”

Originally published as High Steaks: Julian Leeser talks about why he entered politics and what drives him