Malcolm Turnbull

Malcolm Turnbull (born 24 October 1954), Australian politician, was elected to the Australian House of Representatives in October 2004 for the Division of Wentworth, New South Wales, representing the Liberal Party. He was a prominent barrister, merchant banker and advocate for an Australian republic before entering politics.

Turnbull began his education at Vaucluse Public School, and then Sydney Grammar School, where he was assisted by a scholarship. In 1987, memory of his late father, he set up the Bruce T. Turnbull means-tested scholarship at Sydney Grammar, which to this day offers full remission of fees to a student who is unable to pay the independent school's fees.

Turnbull graduated from Sydney University in arts and law before studying at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar in 1978. He first worked as a journalist before practising as a barrister. He rose to the public's attention as the successful advocate in the Spycatcher trial (he blocked the British Government's attempts to suppress the memoirs of a former MI5 agent), and later wrote a book on the trial.

Turnbull has also had a successful career in business. He was General Counsel and Secretary for Consolidated Press Holdings Group (the family company of Kerry Packer) (1983-85), managing director of merchant banking firm Turnbull and Partners Ltd (1987-97), where one of his partners was former Labor Premier of New South Wales Neville Wran, chairman of Australia's leading email company OzEmail Ltd (1994-99), a director of FTR Holdings Ltd (1995-2004), chairman and managing director of Goldman Sachs Australia (1997-2001) and a partner with Goldman Sachs and Co (1998-2001). In 1999 Turnbull sold Ozemail to the telecommunications giant MCI Worldcom. Turnbull's stake was reportedly worth nearly A$60 million. He is generally believed to be Australia's richest parliamentarian by a substantial margin.

From 1993 to 2000 Turnbull was the chairman of the Australian Republican Movement. He was an elected delegate at the Constitutional Convention in Canberra in February, 1998, and in 1999 published a book on the subject, entitled Fighting for the Republic. Following the unsuccessful 1999 referendum campaign to establish an Australian republic, in 2000 Turnbull retired as chairman of the Australian Republican Movement.

In May 2002, Turnbull appeared before the HIH royal commission and was questioned on his involvement on the possible privatisation of one of the acquisitions of the collapsed insurance company.

Turnbull's involvement with the republican movement, his frequent criticism of Prime Minister John Howard during the 1999 referendum, and his business partnership with Neville Wran, led many Australians to suppose that he was a Labor supporter. In fact he has always been a Liberal. He was Federal Treasurer of the Liberal Party, and a member of the Liberal Party's Federal and New South Wales Executives, 2002-03, and is also a director of the Menzies Research Centre, the Liberal Party's research centre.

In 2003 Turnbull announced that he was seeking a seat in federal Parliament. In early 2004 he won a hotly contested preselection battle for the seat of Wentworth, the eastern suburbs electorate of Sydney, defeating Peter King, the sitting Liberal member. King ran for the seat at the 2004 election as an independent. This turned the traditionally safe Liberal electorate into an election wildcard, the contest for the seat becoming a three man race between Turnbull, King and the ALP candidate. Turnbull lost ten percentage points of primary votes, but still won. In early 2005 as the member for Wentworth, Turnbull called for a crack down on tax avoidance. Turnbull is married, with two children, Alexander and Daisy, and lives in Sydney.

His wife, Lucy Turnbull, a prominent businesswoman and a former Lord Mayor of Sydney, is the daughter of distinguished Australian barrister and former federal Attorney-General Tom Hughes AO QC, and her uncle is the respected writer and art critic Robert Hughes.

External link

• Malcolm Turnbull's website (http://www.malcolmturnbull.com.au/)