[8] Shortly after graduating from UWA, he left Australia to travel around the world for three years, and while in the United States, received a scholarship to do a master's degree in international relations at Clark University in Massachusetts.

[7] He returned to Western Australia in 1963, before moving to Canberra the following year to work with the Department of Trade and Industry.

[11][12] Leedman led the Liberals at the 1967 election for the Australian Capital Territory Advisory Council.

[24][25] In October 1985, Leedman chose not to support amendments to ACT criminal legislation which would make marital rape an offence.

[26] According to The Canberra Times, Leedman claimed that "to place a husband in the same category as a burglar who broke into a house and raped a female stranger was to denigrate the status of marriage".