Today’s Australian covers Noel Pearson’s speech in launching Michael Gawenda’s biography of Mark Leibler, The Powerbroker.
The article explains that Noel was a young law graduate when he met Mark in the Collins Street offices of the “famous firm” Arnold Bloch Leibler. It describes The Powerbroker as including “a cast of high-profile Australians — among them Paul Keating, John Howard and Julia Gillard — who came to know Mr Leibler and to call him a friend. Others, including Kevin Rudd and Bob Carr, see Mr Leibler as no friend at all.”
Noel’s speech goes to the lessons he learned from Mark and other Jewish leaders “that indigenous Australians can resist victimhood even in the face of persistent racism and victimisation”.
“I learned from the Jewish community, and from Mark in particular, is that whilst the Jewish people have long been victimised, they have never succumbed to victimhood. And that paradox really seized me.”
Click here to read the PDF version of the extract and here to read the article online.
