In 1984, a series of extremely unsavoury allegations emerged against a business figure known as the “Goanna”. Kerry and I worked intensely together and, when it came to knowing him as a man, I saw the good, the bad … and the bit in between,” Turnbull told GQ Australia in this excellent long feature on Turnbull published earlier this year. “He was my boss and a huge influence in a lot of ways. Kerry Packer and Malcolm Turnbull in 1984. He later became general counsel for the Packers in the early 1980s. The other big ballsy moment in Malcolm Turnbull’s legal career involved the late media mogul Kerry Packer, whom Turnbull had met in 1975. Meanwhile the phrase “economical with the truth”, which sounds like one of those terrible pieces of political doublespeak from the satirical British TV show Yes Minister, has since entered the broader vernacular as a euphemism for a lie. Certainly no British lawyer would have taken on a senior government figure with such belligerence and assuredness. The British press didn’t know what to make of Turnbull’s audacity. And the book, eventually, was allowed to be published. By forcing Armstrong to admit the British Government was prepared to lie to protect national security, Turnbull effectively won the battle there and then. That, right there, is the moment Turnbull skewered his man. Turnbull: What is a misleading impression - a sort of bent untruth?Īrmstrong: As one person said, it is perhaps being economical with the truth. Turnbull: I am just trying to understand. Turnbull: What is the difference between a misleading impression and a lie?Īrmstrong: You are as good at English as I am. Turnbull: Which you knew to be misleading at the time you made it?Īrmstrong: It is a misleading impression, it does not contain a lie, I don’t think. Turnbull: So that letter contains a lie, does it not?Īrmstrong: It contains a misleading impression in that respect. Here’s how the crucial moments of that fabled exchanged played out: Turnbull ate him alive in a famous exchange which has gone down in legal and political history. What happened was, Margaret Thatcher dispatched her Cabinet Secretary, Sir Robert Armstrong to give evidence at the trial. There were even neat parallels with the famous “You Can’t Handle the Truth” line. This was the Aussie equivalent of the starry-eyed Tom Cruise taking on the sneering, supercilious Jack Nicholson in the movie A few Good Men. Turnbull was audacious in that trial alright. “I was quite taken with the Spycatcher trial story and I marvelled at the audacity of a young Australian barrister taking on the British Government,” Liberal Party deputy leader and long-time Turnbull friend Julie Bishop swooned a few years ago in an interview with the ABC. That’s Turnbull on the right, accompanying MI5 counter-intelligence officer and Spycatcher author Peter Wright to court. Up stepped an Australian lawyer called Malcolm Turnbull who would soon have the British government’s suppression orders thrown out of court. The British Government went straight into panic mode and tried to ban it. The book was published first in Australia. This, in the midst of the Cold War, was an unbelievably juicy and sensational allegation. Wright alleged some incredibly scandalous stuff in the book, including that a former director general of MI5 was a Soviet mole. The book was written by Peter Wright, an officer and assistant director with the British intelligence agency MI5. It all started with a book called Spycatcher: The Candid Autobiography of a Senior Intelligence Officer. One happened in 1986 and resulted in Malcolm Turnbull humiliating no less a figure than British PM Margaret Thatcher. His 1994 purchase of a share of Australian internet provider Ozemail for half a million dollars, which he sold five years later for $60 million, was a very nice piece of work.īut two of Turnbull’s moments as a young lawyer are the stuff of absolute legend. Turnbull was successful in several career incarnations pre-politics. Malcolm Turnbull portrayed himself as a calm, visionary figure when announcing his leadership challenge yesterday afternoon, then again in his victory speech late last night.īut the challenge also had an air of ruthlessness about it, a cut-throat quality which harked back to Turnbull’s days as a young lawyer who was unafraid to take on anybody. That word, if you’ll excuse the slightly vulgar colloquialism, is “ballsy”. HE was brilliant, bold, and more than a little brutal when the occasion demanded.īut there’s one other B word which reveals the A-grade qualities of Australia’s newest Prime Minister back in his days as a high-flying lawyer.
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