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Prime Minister 15 September 2015 to 24 August 2018
Liberal Party of Australia

Rhodes Scholar, lawyer, philanthropist and author, Malcolm Turnbull was born to ‘enter life’s rooms without knocking.'¹ He grew up in Sydney as the only child of Bruce Turnbull and Coral Landsbury and studied arts and law at the University of Sydney. During this time, Turnbull worked as a journalist for the Bulletin, Channel 9, and the Sunday Times in London. In 1978, he commenced at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar where he undertook a Bachelor of Civil Law. Two years later, Turnbull married Lucy Hughes and together they have two children, Alex and Daisy.²

After graduating from Oxford, Turnbull returned to Australia to practise as a barrister, where he worked for the Australian Consolidated Holdings group from 1983–1985. He defended prominent businessman Kerry Packer against the ‘Goanna’ allegations of the Costigan Commission which accused Packer of murder. Turnbull subsequently established a private firm with Bruce McWilliam and defended a former MI5 agent who published the book Spycatcher detailing his career during the Cold War. He would later publish his own experiences of the case in The Spycatcher Trial.³

In 1987, Turnbull partnered with former NSW Premier Neville Wran and Nicholas Whitlam (son of former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam) to establish an investment firm. He left after a decade to become managing director of Goldman Sachs Australia.⁴ Alongside such business interests, in 1993, Prime Minister Paul Keating appointed Turnbull as Chair of the Republic Advisory Committee. He actively campaigned for the unsuccessful 1999 republic referendum and published a book, Fighting for the Republic, chronicling this period.⁵

Turnbull was elected to the House of Representatives as the Liberal candidate for Wentworth in 2004. He was quickly elevated to Cabinet in 2007, as Minister for the Environment and Water. Following the Coalition’s defeat in the 2007 election and the initial leadership of Brendan Nelson, Turnbull was elected Leader of the Liberal Party (and Opposition) in September 2008. However, he faced a leadership challenge from Tony Abbott in December 2009 and was defeated.⁶

After the Coalition was returned to government in September 2013, Turnbull served as Minister of Communications.⁷ By September 2015, amid the Abbott Government’s poor polling results, he challenged Tony Abbott for the Liberal Party leadership. Turnbull’s victory in this contest saw him become Australia’s 29th Prime Minister.⁸

Following the 2016 double dissolution election, the Turnbull Government had significant political victories regarding asylum seekers, energy policy (including the commissioning of Snowy Hydro 2.0), and the legalisation of same-sex marriage. Amid these success, the government also became entangled in the section 44 eligibility crisis.⁹ On 24 August 2018, following leadership pressures, Turnbull stepped down as Liberal Party leader and was replaced by Scott Morrison.¹⁰ Turnbull resigned from Parliament the following month¹¹ and would later be appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia, in 2021.¹²

Jude Rae
Sydney-born artist Jude Rae (b.1956) is primarily known for her reflective still-life paintings, portraits and architectural interiors. She attended the Julian Ashton Art School as a secondary student in the 1970s before undertaking further studies in Art History at the University of Sydney. She then concentrated on developing her practice, enrolling in the College of Fine Arts in Sydney and later completing a Masters Degree in Visual Art at Canterbury University in Christchurch, New Zealand. Of great influence for Rae during these early years was the realist work of her father and fellow painter David Rae. In 1987, she held her first solo exhibition and has since exhibited work throughout Australia, New Zealand, Germany and the USA. She has been awarded residencies in France, Italy and New Zealand and has taught art at a tertiary level at Auckland University, the Australian National University, Canberra and the National Art School, Sydney. Rae won the Portia Geach Memorial Award for Portraiture in 2005 and in 2008, the Wynne Prize in 2025 and has been a finalist in the Archibald (Highly Commended in 2019, 2021 & 2022), Wynne and Sulman Prizes.

Hon. Malcolm Turnbull AC
by Jude Rae
2025
oil on canvas
142.5 x 106 cm
Historic Memorials Collection, Parliament House Art Collections

References
1. ‘Turnbull’s turn’ The Economist, 19 September 2015, p 23.
2. National Archives of Australia, ‘About Malcolm Turnbull’, website, accessed 7 March 2024.
3. Malcolm Turnbull, The Spycatcher Trial: the scandal behind the #1 best seller, Salem House, 1989.
4. New Zealand Herald, ‘The deal that made Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull his millions’, website, accessed 7 March 2024
5. Malcolm Turnbull, Fighting for the Republic, Hardie Grant Publishing, 1999.
6. National Actives, Op cit.
7. Peter Lewis, ‘The unravelling of NBN: how Turnbull tailed to download the nation’s network solution’, The Guardian, 6 October 2016.
8. Daniel Hurst, ‘Australian leader Tony Abbott ousted by Malcolm Turnbull after party vote’, The Guardian, 15 September 2015.
9. Malcolm Turnbull, A Bigger Picture, Hardie Grant Books, 2020.
10. Jane Norman and Jon Healy, ‘How Malcolm Turnbull was replaced as Prime Minister in less than a week’, ABC News, 23 August 2018.
11. Ronald Mizen and Aaron Patrick, ‘Malcolm Turnbull formally resigns, forces byelection’, Financial Review, 31 August 2018.
12. Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, ‘The Honourable Malcolm Bligh Turnbull, Companion of the Order of Australia’, 25 January 2021.