Elizabeth Lee on leadership, racism and fighting for her daughter's future

The image is of Lee, characteristically bubbly and beaming as she's introduced as a candidate for Kurrajong at the launch of the Liberals' 2016 election campaign.

Her arms are outstretched, fingers waving. Or are they pointed like pistols?

She's wearing a bright yellow top, with a large blue ribbon pinned to her black jacket.

Lee didn't look like a stereotypical Liberal party candidate back then. That's because she wasn't.

Four years on, she doesn't look like a stereotypical Liberal party leader. That's because she isn't.

Asian. Female. Lawyer. Young mother. Dance class instructor.

Elizabeth Lee doesn't fit the traditional mould of a leader of the Canberra Liberals, a party which hadn't had a female figurehead since Kate Carnell 20 years ago. Her moderate political views don't align with the ultra conservatism some claim has captured and paralysed the local Liberal branch.

As the first Asian-Australian to lead a major political party, she is breaking new ground.

Elizabeth Lee is different.

With her at the helm, might the Canberra Liberals - the long-time losers of ACT politics - be different too?

Born in Kwangju, South Korea, Elizabeth Lee was 7 years old when her parents John and Cecilia moved their family to Australia in search of a new life.

Lee's parents still live and work in western Sydney, where the family settled in the late 1980s.

"One of the other driving forces for me, being a migrant child, is the enormous sacrifices that my parents made so that I could start a new life in Australia," Lee says in an interview with The Canberra Times after she was elected Liberal leader earlier this week.

"All the sacrifices they made, leaving behind a culture, leaving behind a language, leaving behind a family and going to a completely new country, it [Lee being selected as leader] was almost for them ... 'this is worth it. Because our children are making a positive contribution to Australian society, and that is what we came here for.'"

She moved to Canberra at 18, and studied law at Australian National University. Lee later worked at the Commonwealth Attorney-General's Department and with the Australian Government Solicitor, before moving into private practice with Meyer Vandenberg lawyers.

She's been a law lecturer ANU and UC and, in her spare time, has taught Sh'bam and body balance group fitness classes across Canberra.

Her career and experience outside politics sets her apart from her predecessor, Alistair Coe, and the man she'll soon go head-to-head with in the chamber, Chief Minister Andrew Barr.

"There is no doubt that Andrew is going to be formidable opposition," Lee says. "But at the same time, I bring a fresh perspective and a life experience and background that he has never had and I think that will speak volumes as well."

Encouraged into politics by then ACT Liberal leader Zed Seselja, Lee ran unsuccessfully at the 2012 Legislative Assembly elections, and against Labor's Andrew Leigh at the federal election a year later. She was eventually elected in 2016, taking on the environment, disability and, later the education, portfolios in Coe's shadow cabinet.

Lee's star rose quickly, her mix of smarts, friendly persona and strong work ethic the threads of her leadership material. She displayed a hard edge too, fending off attacks from the teachers union and online trolls.

She's spoken publicly about miscarriage, sexual harassment, racism and body image, no doubt inspiring and empowering others in the process.

Some of her colleagues sought to catapult her into the leadership as soon as late last year, as the party room wrestled with doubts about whether the conservative Coe could lead them to victory in 2020.

The coup was thwarted and Lee remained on the backbench, where she played a constructive - though not central - role in the election campaign.

Once the Liberals' fate was sealed on election night, Lee become the clear favourite to take over as leader.

Her promotion was confirmed just before midday on Tuesday, when she convincingly beat former leader Jeremy Hanson in a ballot of the Liberals' nine member party room.

Minutes later, she fronted the media for the first time as leader alongside her new deputy, Giulia Jones.

Together, they form the first all-female leadership team in the history of the ACT Legislative Assembly.

"For me, I'm looking at the bigger picture," Lee says.

"I'm not looking at why I would make the best leader of the Opposition. I'm looking at why I'm best placed to show the Canberra public why I can be the best chief minister."

Lee, 41, has assumed the leadership of a party about to enter its 20^th year in opposition, having just lost a sixth straight election. The Liberals have lost two seats and seen their primary vote recede to 33 per cent.

The October 17 election result can't be sugar coated.

As she did on Tuesday, Lee acknowledges that change is required if the Liberals want to change their electoral fortunes. She argues Labor's near 20-year term in office is unhealthy for democracy, but accepts her opponents aren't simply going to relinquish power.

"I'm not going to be saying poor us, Canberra didn't vote for us," she says.

"It is incumbent on us, it is our duty to convince them that we are the better alternative. For whatever reason, we haven't been able to do that.

"We need to have a good hard look at ourselves and make sure we provide an alternative that the Canberra public can vote for."

Lee is saying that change is needed. But she's not saying what needs to change.

In the very public dissection of the election result, blame for the Liberals' loss has been apportioned to Alistair Coe's leadership, the stunt-filled campaign and the party's conservatism.

Lee, who hails form the party's moderate faction, has been careful not to lay blame or draw conclusions. She's defended the Liberals' suite of election policies, though they will be subject to review.

In her maiden speech to the Legislative Assembly, Lee spoke of the "forgotten Canberrans". Under her leadership, the Liberals won't abandon their campaign to lower the cost of living.

Lee accepts that a perception exists about the Canberra Liberals' conservatism, but contends that ideology hasn't influenced the policies it put forward to the electorate.

"I don't think that you can say that a goal of wanting to save Canberrans money is driven by a conservative ideology," she says.

Lee's selection has been welcomed by former Liberal chief ministers Kate Carnell and Gary Humphries, who believe the pivot to a moderate leader could help turn the party's electoral fortunes.

"Given our long history of putting in middle-aged white men, the idea of someone as different as Elizabeth leading the party creates a whole new dynamic that would be really helpful in recapturing people," Humphries said this week.

Foreshadowing how she will negotiate divisions that might emerge in the party room, Lee has repeated the adage of the Liberals as a "broad church", which welcomes and encourages, rather than stifles, differences of opinion.

The prospect of two former leaders - Coe and Hanson - sitting on the backbench could be unnerving, but Lee wants the pair to play significant roles in her team.

She's not intimidated. She's confident.

"I'm not blindly ambitious to it [leadership]," she says.

"I've always said that it needed to be the best person. I believe that I'm the best person for the job. If I didn't I wouldn't have put my hand up."

Patrick Pentony, who steered Lee's 2016 campaign and ran alongside her in 2020, says his friend and colleague has a capacity to bring people together.

"Not taking anything away from any past leaders, but I think she is more central. I think she is respected by people from all sides of politics," Pentony says.

"I think she will be bring people together. She will want to meet with Canberra and then lead them, rather than just lead them."

Lee became a mother in June last year, giving birth to daughter Mia.

She says motherhood has taught her "not to sweat the small stuff". It has also caused her to pause more regularly, and think more deeply, about the future of Canberra, the one Mia will grow up in.

It is in those moments of introspection that Lee confronts the harsh and sad reality of being an Asian woman in Australian politics. It's reinforced each time she receives another overtly or subtle racist comment, like "I love your shoes ... were they made in China?".

"Every time it happens it reminds me that people do see me differently and that maybe I am not 100 per cent accepted. It is not only hurtful, but also quite sad ... because I think about the world my daughter will grow up in.

"My daughter is mixed-race, and I don't think many people realise the torment of having thoughts cross your mind of being glad that she looks more anglo, because maybe she won't get those comments.

"When you're actually going as a mother 'I would rather my daughter look like her dad', that is pretty sad."

Lee's words are tinged with lament. But there's a sense of defiance, of responsibility. Not just to her daughter, but to her community.

She understands what it means for Asian Australians to see one of their own in influential public positions.

But although she wants to highlight and celebrate her ethnicity, she doesn't want it to define her, or her leadership.

"It is something that I am proud of, and it is something that I can't change, but I would like to think that Canberra sees me for the whole person and that I am here because I am the best person for the job full stop," she says.

"Of course, being a new leader means that my biggest hurdle and test is yet to come.

"I will be judged by how I act and what I say."

Her father John, whose sacrifices laid the foundations for the opportunities Lee has so gratefully seized, has a simple wish for his daughter in her new role.

"It is my wish that my daughter can give Canberra hope for a better future," he says.