His tough in the clinches approach is also effective, as reflected in Australian government decisions, including the treatment of tax-avoiding “bottom of the harbour” schemes in the 70s and 80s and a lenient approach to the historic holding of offshore bank accounts, many of them dating back to pre-war days, providing their contents were declared. His influence is behind a mooted, although now uncertain, future move of the Australian embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the proclaimed, but contested, capital of Jerusalem; the lenient tax treatment of charitable funds used for helping Jews from poor regions in North Africa to resettle in Israel; and more lax regulations applying to Jews migrating to Israel to retain their Australian citizenship after becoming citizens of Israel.
But his energy and passion also go in other, less expected directions, such as strong backing for First Australians to have a constitutionally recognised voice to Parliament, a treaty and an agreement for truth-telling about Australias past.
Asked by AFR Weekend about how he has done so much, Leibler at first draws on what he says is a very simple explanation: I dont get as much sleep as I should. Pressed, he adds that through different roles he has had in Zionist organisations, and his senior position in the Melbourne law firm of Arnold Bloch Leibler, I got to know important decision makers.
Leibler, centre, with brothers Isi, right, and Allan.
I was pretty close to Paul Keating, John Howard and Julia Gillard. I also had very good relations with Malcolm Fraser, Bob Hawke, Tony Abbott and even Malcolm Turnbull.”
There are exceptions. According to Gawenda, former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd and former Labor foreign minister, and long-term premier of NSW, Bob Carr, do not share such warm assessments. They believed Leibler and the “Israel lobby” was a malign force in Australian politics, one that distorted Australias policies on the Arab-Israeli conflict, and turned many politicians and journalists into the lobbys puppets, or, to use Carrs word, “poodles.
Leibler with Julia Gillard, one of the many prime ministers he was “pretty close to”.
Rudd has even accused members of the lobby of conspiring with Gillard, his deputy who toppled him in June 2010, of plotting his downfall. Originally hailing from the party’s left wing, Gillard was more supportive of Israels position in the Middle East conflict than many in Labor’s caucus. Rudd, he just went off the rails, Leibler maintains. The idea of a conspiracy involving powerful members of the Melbourne Jewish community is cloud cuckoo land, he says. I have never exercised improper influence on anyone, [but] I have always exercised my right as an Australian citizen to put a point of view.
Cutting through the red tape
During work for bodies such as the Law Council of Australia, he says, I often found that we were wasting time by ordering the preparation of exhaustive reports which would end up on the desk of some bureaucrat and then find their way into rubbish bins, or be used as toilet paper. “You need access to the right people at the right level, and to communicate in a form that would be comprehensible to them.
One of the activities of a bureaucrat is to make things 10 times more complicated than they need to be in an attempt to control the agenda and decision-making, Leibler says. If theres a problem which needs to be resolved, it needs to be approached in a simple fashion [so that] the mind can come to grips with it without having to take a week to understand it.
Approached in the same simple fashion, Leiblers life outside of his own, close-knit family, is a story about Jews and power, Gawenda writes in his book. However, Gawenda says, Making that connection is fraught with risks, for it is one that has been made throughout history by anti-Semites and by those who think the Jews somehow have an almost magical ability to influence and change always for self-interest and for the worse the course of history.
To understand how Leibler has achieved this remarkable level of power and influence, the observer should first look at his background. As Paul Keating, who is a close friend of Leibler’s, once put it, We all come from somewhere. Leiblers life is rooted in the Australian Jewish community.
Outside Israel, the Australian Jewish community has the highest percentage of Holocaust survivors and their offspring, giving it a rare intensity, particularly in the early postwar years. Leibler tells AFR Weekend that a much greater percentage of Australian Jews have visited Israel or lived there compared with their American counterparts. “It is because of our network of Zionist movements and day schools [that Jewish children in Australia] are far better educated in their Jewishness and history.
From left: Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Mark Leibler and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu.
In a similar fashion, ties between Australian Jews and Israel are far better than their American counterparts, Leibler says. “A lot of the American Jews are taken in by the progressive left who in many cases have very different attitudes to Israel. Apart from Israel, Leibler believes, there is no better place for a Jew to live than in Australia.
Defying stereotypes
Looked at from outside the Jewish community, however, its a mistake to stereotype Leibler. As Gawenda notes, he is a man of contradictions. “He is considered to be a political conservative, yet most of his relationships with politicians have been with Labor prime ministers. He is an Orthodox Jew who, nevertheless, publicly supported the Yes [vote] in Australias 2017 same-sex marriage postal survey. He is a lifelong Zionist who, as a Zionist leader, urged and encouraged Australian Jews to go and settle in Israel as the ultimate fulfilment of a Jewish life, yet he never did so himself.
Instead, Leibler has played the leading role in the life of his own Jewish community in Australia, one that has, in Gawendas view, formed a vanguard for the flowering of Australias multicultural society.
From left: John Howard, Rosanna Leibler, Mark Leibler and US President George W. Bush.
Leiblers parents were affluent diamond merchants in the Belgian city of Antwerp. They were also “39ers”: the 5000 Jews who managed to raise the £200 needed to escape Hitlers murderous clutches and settle in Australia on wars eve. He was brought up in a strictly Orthodox family, eating kosher food, attending a Jewish day school, mixing in Jewish social groups, and having scant contact with outsiders until he became a student at Melbourne Universitys Law School.
After graduating, Leibler joined the law firm of Arnold Bloch later Arnold Bloch Leibler in 1968 when he returned from a year in the United States (with wife Rosanna and infant son Anthony in tow), where he’d completed his master’s degree at Yale. At Arnold Bloch, he gave corporate law, tax law and succession law advice, largely to Jewish families with growing businesses in clothing, meat, real estate and retail. He soon established a reputation as Australias outstanding tax lawyer.
His name and influence spread from the 70s as he assumed more prominent positions among local bodies, including the Zionist Federation of Australia. Unlike many, including members of his immediate family, he never made “aliyah”. This is a Hebrew word meaning going up, or moving, to Israel one of Zionisms most fundamental tenets.
Explaining his reasoning, Leibler tells AFR Weekend: If youre going to make this decision to move to another country, you have to do that early in life. Its a big decision to make. I think it was just too late. However, he is intimately involved in Israeli politics, closely following the convulsions of the past few years, with repeated elections and tight results, followed by the emergence of a right-wing coalition government led by Benjamin Netanyahu.
It is now formally committed to a policy of annexation on the West Bank, although how much land this involves, and how many already existing Jewish settlements on the West Bank it includes, remain unclear. Whatever Netanyahus precise intentions, he is broadly supported by the US for now meaning while the Trump administration stays in office but is opposed by many countries in Europe.
Leibler with Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
However vague, Netanyahus present policy is counter to the so-called two state solution which was first proposed by the UN when it voted to create the state of Israel in 1948. According to a 2019 poll published in Haaretz, a centrist Israeli newspaper, 30 per cent of respondents were unsure about what Netanyahu meant by annexation, 28 per cent opposed any annexation, 15 per cent supported annexing some limited areas, and 27 per cent wanted to annex the entire West Bank. In other words, 42 per cent of Israelis want to formally annex some or all of the West Bank, which was seized by Israel during the six-day War in 1967, according to the poll.
Leibler says the two-state solution is not currently on the cards. However, Speaking for myself and not on behalf of the AIJAC [the Australia Israel and Jewish Affairs Council, which he was instrumental in forming], its premature to talk about annexation because we dont know what is being annexed. I think its important to be realistic.
A good part of the [Palestinian] leadership in the Gaza Strip is opposed to the existence of the state of Israel and they have determined to destroy it if they are able to. Those are facts on the ground which have to be taken into account.
I believe in a two-state solution when the time is ready for it. I believe in the existence of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. You cannot have a state whereby indefinitely it is going to be ruling over people who dont have citizenship rights. Annexing large parts of the West Bank thats not something I would approve of. If you annex the major settlements surrounding Jerusalem thats another matter.”
Leibler, left, with Will Bailey, centre, and Nick Greiner at a Coles Myer press conference in 1995. Nine
Mainstream Jewish organisations dont want to deal with theoretical propositions, Leibler says. If Democratic candidate and former US vice-president Joe Biden wins Novembers presidential election, he would not recognise annexation, which is another reason for not running with it, Leibler says.
“Annexation is a difficult kettle of fish. You have got to put all these difficult things into the mix. I dont envy [Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu], Leibler says.
The Israeli Prime Minister is caught between pressure from the right wing in his coalition and the need to maintain ties with largely Sunni Arab states such as Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, which he doesnt want to upend, says Leibler. “Its a very complex situation.
Moreover, the issue has a lower priority and the Israeli government is now primarily concerned with the coronavirus.
Indigenous rights
Overall, Leibler is an optimist, buoyed by the great success of his own community. Notwithstanding all the difficulties that the Jewish people face, [including] increases in anti-Semitism in the US and Australia, this is very much the Golden Age for the Jewish people. The state of Israel has very much empowered the Jewish people. Its the reason why there is never going to be another Holocaust. The Jewish people can hold their heads high and be proud of what they have achieved.
For Australia, on the other hand, he acknowledges the quadruple challenge of drought, raging bushfires, the COVID-19 pandemic and rapidly worsening relations with China, our most important trading partner. Its very difficult to predict how the Chinese are going to behave. If Australia can demonstrate that its not going to be intimidated that gives us the best prospects.
From left: Noel Pearson, Marcia Langton, Patrick Dodson and Mark Leibler. Rebecca Hallas
If we are intimidated then the Chinese will just continue. Theres quite a bit of bipartisanship. Were approaching this the right way. The government has strong support. Time will tell [but] I think were a pretty resilient people. When you compare us with other countries, I think were placed pretty well.”
At the same time, however, he is passionate about the need for more reconciliation with First Australians, including constitutional recognition of a First Nations voice to Parliament. Leibler has been deeply influenced by his close friendship with Indigenous Australian leader Noel Pearson, a lawyer who completed some of his training with Arnold Bloch Leibler.
I knew nothing about Indigenous Australians when I went to school. The first time I really came to grips with this was after I met Noel Pearson, who I regard as one of the most articulate Australians. I know Paul Keating encouraged him to go into politics. Im very sorry he didnt. He would have been our first Indigenous prime minister. His level of intelligence leaves everyone else far behind. Hes a remarkable human being.
Mark Leibler and Noel Pearson during the closing ceremony in the Mutitjulu community of the First Nations National Convention held at Uluru, in 2017. Alex Ellinghausen
Im very disappointed in particular with Malcolm Turnbulls reaction to the Uluru Statement from the Heart, Leibler says. This followed a 2017 Referendum Convention of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people near Uluru and the Statement from the Heart called for a First Nations voice in the Australian Constitution and a Makarrata Commission” or treaty to supervise a process of “agreement-making” and “truth-telling” between government and First Nations people.
If you look back at Uluru, it was a most remarkable and moving closing ceremony. The statement was adopted with total acclamation.
The call for a First Nations voice to Parliament means that everything else is up to the Parliament to decide. “Why is that so difficult? I would imagine that a referendum wouldnt be a problem at all. A lot of polling demonstrates that.
The second demand is for a treaty. Its an issue where there could be lots of different opinions. “What is wrong with asking for a treaty? Leibler says. Finally, theres the demand for truth-telling. Leiblers response: Thats how you move forward.
Looking back, Leibler says, The British came here. There was an invasion. We started off by murdering a lot of Aboriginal people [and then] killing them with kindness. We need to work with Indigenous Australians and not tell them what to do. I am optimistic and I think were moving in the right direction.”
The Jewish people were almost wiped out by the Holocaust, with Leiblers grandparents murdered at Auschwitz. We know a fair bit about pogroms and murder, and thats one of the reasons why we empathise with the plight of Indigenous Australians.
Its all part of a big life family man, tax lawyer, Jewish community leader, and a man who has an extraordinary capacity to get things done and influence events and decisions. I have always believed that if you are going to lead a life, it should be as meaningful and worthwhile as possible, Leibler says.
The Power Broker: Mark Leibler, an Australian Jewish Life, by Michael Gawenda (Monash University Publishing), will be launched online by Julia Gillard and Noel Pearson on July 20 at 6 pm.
