Australia's Turnbull a conservative with socially liberal views

Malcolm Turnbull, who won a party leadership challenge Monday and will become Australia's new prime minister, is a millionaire former banker whose socially liberal views including support for gay marriage are at odds with some of his fellow conservatives.

The 60-year-old Sydneysider, said to be worth upwards of AUD$100 million, has led the right-wing Liberal Party before -- serving as opposition leader for just over a year from September 2008.

But he was dumped when he refused to abandon a carbon emissions trading scheme designed to combat climate change, a policy many in his party refused to accept.

His moderate views on social issues have also caused waves, including his backing of gay marriage which is not legal in Australia. But he remains popular with business leaders because of his background in law, banking and communications.

The silver-haired Turnbull announced his challenge to Prime Minister Tony Abbott in a low-key, almost apologetic manner in which he called for a smarter style of leadership in a complex world.

"We need advocacy, not slogans. We need to respect the intelligence of the Australian people," he said.
In some quarters Turnbull has a reputation for being arrogant, and his staggering wealth means he risks being seen as as out-of-touch with ordinary Australians.

But witty and eloquent, Turnbull is an adept user of social media, and he may also be viewed as the best hope of winning over swinging voters who would otherwise side with the opposition Labor party.

In a revealing interview in 2012 Turnbull admitted to the Sydney Morning Herald that he was  ambitious but said: "I would not want to be prime minister of Australia at any price."

On Monday, he said that electoral defeat was staring Abbott in the face and that change was needed "for our country's sake, for the government's sake, for the party's sake".

- Humble beginnings -

Malcolm Bligh Turnbull was raised by his single parent father, after his mother left the family when he was still in primary school, and he was educated at Sydney Grammar with the help of a scholarship.

A Rhodes scholar at Oxford, Turnbull first worked as a journalist before turning to the law.

He gained prominence in the 1980s for successfully defending former MI5 agent Peter Wright against the British government in the "Spycatcher" trial.
From law he entered the corporate world, becoming a merchant banker and investing in technology start-ups, before entering public life by spearheading the push for Australia to break ties with British royalty and become a republic.

The campaign was unsuccessful, but by October 2004 he had entered parliament and under Liberal prime minister John Howard rose to be environment minister.

When Howard was swept from power in 2007, Turnbull was not the first choice to lead the party. But, ever a contender, he was opposition leader within a year.

His subsequent loss of the Liberal leadership, which went to Abbott by just one vote, was a crushing defeat for Turnbull who at first thought he would resign from politics.

He was convinced to stay on, however, and as Abbott's communications minister has worked hard to sell government policies.
But with the government's opinion polling in the doldrums, some see Turnbull as the moderate who could deliver the conservatives the next election, due by January 2017.

The Labor Party has previously planned to paint him as "Tony Abbott in an expensive suit" --  a millionaire with a mansion on Sydney harbour and a big ego who is out of step with his own colleagues.

But Monday's vote showed otherwise, with Liberal Party lawmakers in both houses of the Australian parliament throwing their support his way.
Source: AFP