Malcolm Turnbull

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Malcolm Turnbull (2015)

Malcolm Bligh Turnbull (born October 24, 1954 in Sydney ) is an Australian politician of the conservative Liberal Party of Australia . He was Prime Minister of Australia from September 15, 2015 to August 24, 2018 . The former lawyer and investment banker was most recently Minister for Telecommunications under Prime Minister Tony Abbott from September 2013 to September 2015 . Under Prime Minister John Howard , he served as Environment Minister from January, when he was elected in December 2007. He was then initially shadow minister for finance and from September 2008 to December 2009 opposition leader. After Prime Minister Tony Abbott's popularity slumped, Turnbull, Abbott's long-time internal opponent, was elected Liberal Party leader in a vote on September 14, 2015 in place of Abbott. The following day he was also sworn in as Prime Minister.

Turnbull, from 1993 to 2000 chairman of the Republican Movement of Australia, is assigned to the centrist wing of the Liberals, for which he represented a constituency in east Sydney in the federal parliament from 2004 to 2018. His socio-political views on issues such as same-sex marriage and the environment are considered liberal and are now considered mainstream in Australia . Soon after joining the federal parliament, he was one of the most popular politicians in the country. During his tenure as Prime Minister the popularity of his government waned and Turnbull found himself forced to resign from the post of Prime Minister after a revolt by his internal party opponents.

Life

Youth and professional career

Malcolm Turnbull is the son of the writer Coral Lansbury (1929–1991) and Bruce Turnbull. His mother was the daughter of a British immigrant. Through that line, Malcolm Turnbull is distantly related to actress Angela Lansbury . Turnbull grew up in relatively modest circumstances in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, first studying law and art in his hometown at the University of Sydney before he received a Rhodes scholarship and continued his legal training at the elite English university of Oxford . Parallel to his studies, he also worked as a journalist for newspapers, magazines and radio in both countries.

While still in England in 1980, he married Lucy Hughes , born in Mittagong , Australia , daughter of the former liberal Federal Justice Minister Tom Hughes and niece of the art critic and author Robert Hughes . The couple returned to Australia that same year. There Malcom Turnbull initially worked as a lawyer before he became legal advisor to the major publisher of the Australian Consolidated Press magazines of the media tsar Kerry Packer , whom he successfully defended in connection with a sensational tax minimization matter, the so-called "Goanna Affair". In 1982 and 1985 son Alex and daughter Daisy were born.

In 1985, he co-founded the Turnbull McWilliam law firm with Bruce McWilliam. In 1986 he achieved notoriety when he was able to push through the publication of the book Spycatcher by the former British secret agent Peter Wright against British interests . In 1987 he opened the investment bank Whitlam Turnbull & Co Ltd together with Nicholas Whitlam, a son of former Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and Neville Wran . Following the departure Whitlam in 1990, the bank changed its name as Turnbull & Partners Ltd .

At that time, Turnbull joined the supervisory boards of various companies and also acquired various investments. In 1997 he became head of Goldman Sachs in Australia and became a partner the following year. The collaboration with Goldman Sachs lasted until 2001. In 1999 he sold his 1994 500,000 Australian dollar share acquired of the Internet service provider OzEmail reportedly for 57 million Australian dollars in WorldCom .

Political career until 2015

He made his first foray into politics in 1981 when he unsuccessfully sought the Liberals' candidacy for the federal seat of parliament at Wentworth , in Sydney's affluent eastern suburbs .

In 1993 he became chairman of the anti-monarchist movement in Australia, the Australian Republican Movement . After his defeat in a referendum in 1999 which had the aim of removing the Queen of Great Britain as head of state of Australia, he retained the chairmanship until 2000.

Malcolm Turnbull (2005)

In 2004 he reapplied for the seat of Wentworth. He reportedly invested around A $ 600,000 of his own fortune. First he beat the incumbent MP Peter King to run for the Liberals and eventually won the seat despite the fact that the Wentworth party lost around 10% of the vote compared to the previous election. In 2006, Prime Minister John Howard made him head of the Office of Water Resources before becoming Minister for Environment and Water Resources at the beginning of the following year.

After the Howard government was defeated by the Labor Party under Kevin Rudd in the 2007 elections in November of the same year - Turnbull managed to successfully defend his seat - he tried to become opposition leader. In the fight vote in the liberal faction he was defeated by the former Defense Minister Brendan Nelson with 45 to 42 votes. Under this, Turnbull became shadow minister for finance. In September 2008 there was a renewed vote between the two for the opposition leadership. Turnbull won this time with 45 to 41 votes.

Under Turnbull the polls for the opposition improved, but he did not succeed in convincing a majority of voters. Turnbull's reputation suffered serious damage when, in mid-2009, in the so-called OzCar affair, he stood up for misinformation and a fake email from a senior Treasury official, Godwin Grech, who was close to the liberals, and subsequently charged Prime Minister Rudd with false accusations in parliament.

The end of Turnbull's leadership came about through his sustained involvement in emissions trading , which was also advocated by the government at the time ; the majority of Liberal group colleagues were against it and Turnbull's position was not rewarded in polls by approval ratings for the opposition. This resulted in a renewed vote for the leadership of the opposition in December 2009. This time Turnbull was defeated by the conservative former priesthood student and monarchist Tony Abbott with 41 to 42 votes.

Turnbull was not appointed to his shadow cabinet and announced that he would not be re-elected as a member of the parliamentary elections scheduled for August 2010, which he revoked a few months later. After the elections , in which the Liberals won votes, but were ultimately unable to form the government due to a lack of confidence from the independent MPs, he became shadow minister for telecommunications.

On September 7, 2013 , the Liberals won the election after the Labor government under Prime Minister Gillard was unsuccessful and Kevin Rudd, who was re-elected a few weeks before the election, was only able to catch up slightly on the polls. The new Prime Minister Tony Abbott appointed Turnbull as Minister for Telecommunications with a seat in the Cabinet . His main task was to reorganize the establishment of the National Broadband Network (NBN), which was estimated under the first Prime Minister of Kevin Rudd and cost 40 billion Australian dollars .

Prime Minister 2015-2018

Swearing-in of Turnbull by the Governor General of Australia , Sir Peter Cosgrove on September 15, 2015

On September 14, 2015, Turnbull resigned as minister in order to challenge Prime Minister Abbott in an internal party vote and to take over his office. Abbott's administration had fallen behind the Labor opposition in opinion polls soon after the election. Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State Julie Bishop pledged their support to Turnbull. Turnbull was elected as the new party leader by the Liberal Group with 54 votes to 44 with one invalid vote. The following day he was also sworn in as Prime Minister.

During his administration several bills were blocked by the Senate, so that Turnbull announced new elections. With a new election, Turnbull also wanted to get a personal mandate for his government. In the election on July 2, 2016 , his liberal-conservative governing coalition only won a very narrow majority of 76:74 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives. On July 2, 2016, he was re-elected as Prime Minister.

During his reign, Turnbull initiated a survey on the question of introducing same-sex marriage in Australia. The poll was chosen because the government's bill for a referendum had been rejected in the Senate . In contrast, no law was required to hold a survey and the results of the survey were not legally binding. In addition, unlike in a referendum, there was no compulsory voting in a survey . The poll, held from September 12 to November 7, 2017, sparked intense controversy among the Australian public. Ultimately, there was a clear majority in favor of same-sex marriage, which was incorporated into law in December 2017, but conservative supporters of the government struggled to go along with this.

Turnbull and Donald Trump in May 2017 in New York City

After it turned out that Vice Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce also had New Zealand citizenship in addition to Australian citizenship, he had to give up his parliamentary mandate on October 27, 2017, as this was not compatible with the legal requirements. Barnaby gave back his other citizenship and was able to win back his vacant constituency in a by-election on December 3, 2017, so that the original government majority was restored.

Turnbull continued the foreclosure policy of its predecessor's rigid immigration policy, with the boat people being arrested by the Australian Navy at sea and prevented from entering Australian territory. The refugee boats are either sent back to their countries of origin, mostly Indonesia. All asylum seekers who were not returned were detained in Australian immigration detention at the Nauru Regional Processing Center in the island state of Nauru and Manus Regional Processing Center in Papua New Guinea. They had to stay there even if the asylum application was granted. The government was accused of violating the United Nations Convention against Torture at least in part. The government was also accused of violating the United Nations Convention against Torture at least in part. There were initially differences with US President Donald Trump over an agreement on the redistribution of refugees and Trump was quoted on February 2, 2017 as saying that his phone call with Turnbull about it was "by far the worst" ( "the worst by far") ) that he had previously led with a head of government. The mutual relationship improved later. Relations with the People's Republic of China did not develop without tension and Turnbull repeatedly warned against assumed Chinese influence in Australia.

One area of ​​domestic controversy was Australia's energy policy. Under pressure from conservative inner-party opponents, Turnbull had to withdraw a draft law under which Australia would have undertaken to reduce its climate-damaging emissions by 25% by 2030 (based on the reference year 2005).

resignation

In view of poor poll numbers in mid-2018 and the lack of success in the by-elections in Queensland on July 28, 2018, Turnbull lost support within the party. On August 23, 2018, three prominent ministers jointly resigned from his cabinet. On August 21, 2018, there was an internal party vote in the Liberal Party, which Turnbull won with 48 against 35 votes against his challenger Peter Dutton . The high number of his internal party critics expressed in this result of the vote spurred his opponents on and previous supporters of Turnbull joined them. The parliamentary group finally called for a “ spill ” of the government, whereupon Turnbull gave up on August 23, 2018 and announced his resignation.

The former Australian Chancellor of the Exchequer Scott Morrison was elected as the new party chairman and sworn in on the same day.

After resigning from his government office, Turnbull declared that he was also giving up his parliamentary mandate. This was explosive in that it required a by-election in his constituency and the government only had a parliamentary majority of one vote at the time. The November 2018 by-election was won by an independent candidate ( Kerryn Phelps ), so that the government lost its majority.

capital

Malcolm Turnbull was considered one of the "200 richest Australians" and the wealthiest MP in 2009 with an estimated fortune of 186 million Australian dollars . In 2014 he was no longer listed in the list of the 200 richest Australians, which would have required a fortune of at least $ 250 million. His house on the harbor in Point Piper , a suburb in eastern Sydney, was valued at around $ 50 million in 2015.

Web links and sources

Commons : Malcolm Turnbull  - collection of images, videos and audio files

References and comments

  1. ↑ a b zeit.de: Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull resigns
  2. ↑ a b Anna Henderson: Malcolm Turnbull keeps same-sex marriage, climate change policies on first day as Prime Minister. ABC News, September 15, 2015, accessed May 8, 2016 .
  3. ^ A b c d Caroline Davies: Malcolm Turnbull: former journalist, banker, lawyer - and now Australia's PM. September 14, 2015, accessed on August 23, 2018 .
  4. ^ Journalist Kaitlyn Sawrey: Malcolm Turnbull's brilliant career . In: triple j . October 20, 2015 ( net.au [accessed August 23, 2018]).
  5. ↑ Goldman Sachs alumnus Malcolm Turnbull runs the country; others the US Treasury . In: Financial Review . December 16, 2016 ( afr.com [accessed August 23, 2018]).
  6. ^ A decade of life with OzEmail , Sydney Morning Herald, October 14, 2002
  7. ^ Adam Gartrell: Malcolm Turnbull facing 10% swing in Wentworth as his popularity plummets. June 4, 2016, accessed on August 23, 2018 .
  8. ^ Wentworth - Federal Election 2007 - ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). Retrieved August 23, 2018 .
  9. ^ Paddy Manning: Bad blood and bastardry: how Malcolm Turnbull became opposition leader. October 23, 2015, accessed on August 23, 2018 .
  10. ↑ a b c Biography | Malcolm Turnbull MP. Retrieved August 23, 2018 .
  11. ↑ Phillip Coorey: Shock result as Abbott wins Liberal leadership by one vote ... ETS dead. The Sydney Morning Herald, December 1, 2009, accessed August 23, 2018 .
  12. ↑ Peter Martin, Jonathan Swan: Malcolm Turnbull reveals plan to break NBN promise. The Sydney Morning Herald, December 12, 2013, accessed August 23, 2018 .
  13. ^ Australian parliament approves same-sex marriage. BBC News, December 7, 2017, accessed August 24, 2018 .
  14. ^ Barnaby Joyce declares victory in New England with huge swing against low-profile opponents. ABC News, December 3, 2017, accessed August 24, 2018 .
  15. ↑ US-Australia refugee deal: Trump in 'worst call' with Turnbull. BBC News, February 2, 2017, accessed August 25, 2018 .
  16. ↑ China rebukes Australians over influence debate 'hysteria'. BBC News, December 6, 2017, accessed August 24, 2018 .
  17. ↑ Malcolm Turnbull: Under-pressure Australia PM drops climate policy. BBC News, August 20, 2018, accessed August 24, 2018 .
  18. ↑ Australia PM loses opinion poll he cited in ousting predecessor. BBC News, April 9, 2018, accessed August 24, 2018 .
  19. ↑ Australia's government loses by elections, denting re-election prospect. The Straits Times, July 29, 2018, accessed August 24, 2018 .
  20. ↑ Malcolm Turnbull: Australian PM survives leadership challenge. BBC News, August 21, 2018, accessed August 24, 2018 .
  21. ^ A b Scott Morrison is new Australian PM as Malcolm Turnbull ousted. BBC News, August 24, 2018, accessed August 24, 2018 .
  22. ^ By-election in Australia: Government loses parliamentary majority . In: Spiegel Online . November 5, 2018 ( spiegel.de [accessed November 5, 2018]).
  23. ^ BRW Rich 200 , Business Review Weekly , 2014.
  24. ↑ Lucy Macken: Inside Malcolm Turnbull's Point Piper Mansion , Domain, February 6, 2015
personal data
SURNAME Turnbull, Malcolm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Turnbull, Malcolm Bligh (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian politician and prime minister
DATE OF BIRTH October 24, 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH Sydney , New South Wales , Australia