Politics with Michelle Grattan: Julian Leeser on fighting an ‘explosion’ of hate in Australia

Liberal frontbencher Julian Leeser has a lot on his plate.

As shadow education minister, he’s managing the opposition’s response to the government’s overhaul of universities, a vital sector he says is facing “a loss of confidence”. As spokesman on Indigenous Australians, Leeser – who supported the Voice to parliament last term – is looking for a “new direction” in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs.

He’s also the opposition’s leading Jewish voice and will soon appear at the royal commission on antisemitism to talk about the “explosion” in hate against Jewish Australians – and what more should be done about it.

Leeser joins the podcast to talk about these issues, as well as the parlous state of the Liberal Party.

After having previously worked as the Australian Catholic University’s director of government policy and strategy, Leeser said only a decade ago universities were a “growing, confident part of Australia”. But that’s changed:

I think there’s a lack of confidence in higher education at the moment. When I went to the University Australia conference, the universities themselves are talking about issues around their social licence to operate.

You’ve had the antisemitism crisis that’s been on campus, you’ve had issues around [artificial intelligence] and cheating factories. You’ve issues around foreign interference on our campuses. And I think there’s a loss of confidence that the broader public has in the sector. But I think it’s also a loss of confidence within the sector itself.

On fighting foreign intimidation

After Australian security officials concluded the Iranian government directed at least two antisemitic arson attacks in Sydney in Melbourne, the Iranian ambassador to Australia was expelled.

But Leeser argues Australia should go further and fully close the Iranian embassy. He said Persian Australians in his New South Wales electorate of Berowra continue to be intimidated by Iran.

I represent the third largest Persian community in Australia. And for years, the Persian community has been coming to me and talking to me about the fears that they have of being intimidated and being surveilled by the embassy.

[…] Recently we had the director-general of security [ASIO chief Mike Burgess] give his annual threat assessment. He mentioned Iran there 16 times. He said that his great worry was that there would be some form of attack of the sort that they’re seen in Europe, where an Iranian-backed person effectively attacks an Australian here.

[…] We’ve already seen Iran attack Australia twice: at the Adass Israel synagogue bombing [in Melbourne] and at the Lewis Continental Kitchen firebombing [in Sydney]. I think the Iranian embassy continues – at least this is what my Persian community says to me – that they continue to be a source of surveillance, they continue be a sort of intimidation for law-abiding Australians. And we just shouldn’t have any of it.

Needing more leadership on antisemitism

Leeser said antisemitism was a problem in Australia long before the October 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in Israel – but that there has been an “explosion” of anti-Jewish hate following that and the Bondi terrorist attack last year.

One of the reasons I think we saw an explosion after October 7 was because the leaders in government, in law enforcement, in universities and the Human Rights Commission were not strong enough, early enough, to crack down on things […] You had those protests outside the Opera House where people were saying, ‘gas the Jews’ or ‘where’s the Jews’, and burning flags and so on. And rather than clamping down on that vigorously, these things were allowed to fester.

So I blame the leadership of Australia at the time, at those various levels. I think that’s the first thing you need to deal with with antisemitism. Running a society, I often say, is like running a family. Children, like societies, need boundaries. They crave boundaries and they want to see those boundaries enforced. And they were not enforced.

‘A new direction’ in Indigenous affairs

In a submission to a parliamentary inquiry into racism, hate and violence directed at Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, the Australian Council of Trade Unions has renewed its push for a national representative body for Indigenous Australians.

But despite being someone who supported an Indigenous Voice to parliament, Leeser now has a different view – and flags what he will be raising in coming weeks instead.

I think after the [Voice] referendum we needed a new direction to move beyond the Uluru Statement […] So I think some of the big challenges we’ve got to face is Indigenous school attendance and school retention, and I’m looking forward to saying a few things about those in the coming weeks.

We’ve got to do some things around Indigenous suicide, which continues to go backwards. And we’ve got do something about the fact that I think something like 47% or more of Australia’s land mass is under Indigenous title. We need to be able to unlock intergenerationally transformative economic opportunity that hasn’t been done there.

[…] In a broader Australian community, people often take their house and use the equity in their home to start a business, because you’ve got the freehold, you’re able to borrow against that. You can’t do that with a lot of Indigenous title. We want to be able to drive economic aspiration and economic opportunity from Indigenous land rights […] and that’s why we need I think to look at this and work out what are the things that we can do to get better economic benefits.

Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.