Dining on manoush in north-west Sydney, the former shadow minister says his kids were top of mind when he even tried “speed dates” to win over his colleagues.
Julian Leeser agreed he had been on a “crazy journey” in the eight days since we first scheduled lunch at a Lebanese eatery in his electorate in north-west Sydney.
It’s only five minutes from the home he shares with his wife Joanna Davidson, a barrister, and their two children, aged five and one. Her family has run a dental practice in the area for 70 years. Leeser’s resignation statement on Tuesday contained a lament that he had failed to persuade Coalition MPs that the Voice was worth supporting.“I told them the history [of the Voice], my own involvement, why we had got to where we are, where I think the government is going to land.”
At lunch, there is sadness in his eyes. He had been only a successful election away from his dream job – first law officer in a Coalition government; one that he had set his sights on in primary school.“It’s hard to put into words; I think I am actually sad in the sense that I love doing this job and I don’t want the party or Peter to feel that I’ve let them down. I’ve been a member since I was 16.
After Leeser succeeded Ruddock as the member for Berowra in 2016, he was made co-chair of the Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition with Senator Pat Dodson, whichOn that day, Leeser brought his then infant son, James, to Canberra and said he hoped that “when he looks back on whatever his father achieves in this place, he will be proud of the efforts his dad made towards constitutional recognition of and reconciliation with our First Nations peoples”.
The next two – meat with cheese, and zaatar with vegetables – follow soon after and Leeser is awake to the image: “It looks like I’ve become Mr Pizza.” Leeser had started that week with a Monday speech at the National Press Club in which he outlined an alternative form of words for the constitutional amendment.
Leeser also says it is unclear who the Voice could talk to, what it could talk about and how it would make representations. Leeser says he will continue advocating for changes of the Voice wording that will be put to a referendum.“I love the Constitution, but I think the reconciliation project is so important, and the racial harmony of the country is so important to me, and my involvement in this has been so important to me that I want to show my commitment.”
It was interpreted as a reference to the torment Jews suffered at the hands of the Nazis; and a way they were identified. “The reason I disagree with that view is that Aboriginal people are the only people that we make law about on the basis of their race, the only people.
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