Malcolm Turnbull was the 29th Prime Minister of Australia. Prior to entering politics he enjoyed successful careers as a lawyer, investment banker and journalist.
Malcolm was born in 1954 and grew up in Sydney. For much of his childhood he lived alone with his father Bruce.
While studying law at Sydney University, Malcolm worked as a journalist and continued doing so when he studied at Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship.
It was during his time at Oxford that Malcolm met and was hired by Harold Evans, the editor of London’s Sunday Times newspaper.
After his time at Oxford, where he married his wife Lucy, Malcolm returned to Australia and practised law where he quickly established a reputation as an effective advocate, most notably when he successfully defended former MI5 agent Peter Wright against the British Government, in the “Spycatcher” trial.
Malcolm joined Goldman Sachs in 1997 becoming a partner of the firm the following year and headed their Australian business for four years until he retired to pursue a political career.
He entered the Australian Parliament in 2004 and during that time served as Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, Minister for Communications and as Prime Minister from 2015-18.
During his time as Prime Minister, Malcolm delivered an economic growth agenda that lead to record job creation on the back of cutting personal and company taxes. His government legalised same-sex marriage and reformed the school funding model to ensure a consistent, needs based approach across all school sectors.
His government embarked on the largest peace-time expansion and modernisation of Australian defence forces and defence industry, including commissioning 54 new Naval vessels.
Malcolm has a deep interest in energy issues and renewable energy. He recongised the urgent need for large scale storage to make intermittent renewables reliable and started the construction of the Snowy Hydro 2.0 pumped hydro scheme, which will be the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. He also identified the opportunity for similar pumped storage systems in Tasmania.
He successfully negotiated a deal with President Trump to maintain a refugee resettlement deal he had agreed to with President Obama.
When Trump pulled out of the Trans Pacific Partnership, Malcolm refused to allow that 12 nation free trade deal to fall by the wayside, rallying the remaining eleven countries to commit to a continuing TPP-11.
He radically reformed the way the Australian federal Government deals with states and cities, establishing a series of City Deals where the three levels of Government agree on common goals and then work together to realize them. As part of the Western Sydney City Deal, he commenced the construction of a new Airport for Sydney.
At a time of growing nationalist sentiment across the world, he opposed racism and division at every turn, ensuring that Australia remains the most successful multicultural society in the world.
Since leaving politics, Malcolm has resumed his business career and regularly speaks at global conferences.Malcolm is married to Lucy, the former Lord Mayor of Sydney and former Chief Commissioner of the Greater Sydney Commission. He has two children, Alex and Daisy, and four grandchildren – Jack, Isla, Alice and Ronan.
