Malcolm Turnbull

Malcolm Turnbull is an Australian politician who was formerly the elected Federal leader of the Liberal Party of Australia, and the Federal Leader of the Opposition, on 16th September 2008. On December 1 2009, he lost a leadership vote to Tony Abbott due to disagreements regarding emissions trading and retired to the Liberal "back benches" due to him not representing the majority of Liberal members thoughts and for being 'soft' on issues such as Climate Change, same sex marriage and republicanism (all of which are against the Liberal parties principles)

He has previously served as Environment Minister in the government of John Howard and after Howard's 2007 election loss as Shadow Federal Treasurer under then Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson.

Turnbull represents the wealthy Sydney seat of Wentworth in Federal Parliament. Wentworth has a socially liberal population, and Turnbull's stated views reflect this. In 2005, Turnbull found the electorate of Sedgefield a notionally safe Labour seat near where he had grown up in Iserham. The branch had not made a nomination, and Blair visited them. Several sitting MPs. With the support of John Howard, Turnbull won their endorsement and he was added to the short list and won the selection over Judith Daniels. He later became Abbott's agent.