"He has a history of close, first name, relationships with just about every Australian prime minister dating back to Malcolm Fraser, every Israeli prime minister from Menachem Begin on, not to mention foreign ministers in both countries, sundry Australian taxation commissioners, and powerful business figures such as Frank Lowy, John Gandel and Solomon Lew."
Andrew Clark, Australian Financial Review, 18 July 2020
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From the ashes of the darkest event in human history, Australian Jews built a thriving community, one with proportionally more Holocaust survivors than anywhere else in the world bar Israel. Mark Leibler grew up in this community, and in time became a leader of it. This book shows how Leibler rose to a position of immense influence in Australian public life by skilfully entwining his roles as a Zionist leader and a tax lawyer to some of the country’s richest people.
The book vividly paints a cast of Australian characters – among them Paul Keating, John Howard, Julia Gillard and Noel Pearson – who came to know Leibler and to call him a friend, along with people like Kevin Rudd and Bob Carr, who see Leibler as no friend at all. Finally, the book charts the surprise turn in Leibler’s life, when a social and political conservative became a committed advocate for radical reform on behalf of Australia’s Indigenous people.
This many-layered book is a portrait of Jewish life in Australia, of the interaction between private wealth and politics, and of a man whose energy, formidable work habits and forcefulness that often tips into pugnacity have made him a highly effective player in Australian affairs.
‘He taught me about power – how to get it and how to use it,’ says Noel Pearson. Through one man’s story, this book shows how power works in Australia.
To read a full copy of the transcript of the Powerbroker virtual book launch, click here.
To read a review of the Powerbroker in the December 2020 edition of the Law Institute Journal, click here.
About Michael Gawenda
Michael Gawenda is one of Australia’s best-known journalists and authors. In a journalism career spanning four decades, Michael has been a political reporter, a foreign correspondent based in London and in Washington, a columnist, a feature writer, a senior editor at Time Magazine and the Editor and Editor in Chief of The Age in Melbourne from 1997 to 2004.
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