Malcolm Turnbull

Malcolm Bligh Turnbull (born 24 October 1954) is the 29th and current Prime Minister of Australia. He became prime minister and Leader of the Liberal Party in 2015 and has been the member of parliament for Wentworth since 2004.

Turnbull attended Sydney Grammar School before going to the University of Sydney, where he received a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws. He then attended Brasenose College, Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar, where he attained a Bachelor of Civil Law. Before entering politics, Turnbull worked as a journalist, lawyer, investment banker and venture capitalist. In 1993, he became the chairman of the Australian Republican Movement, serving in the position until 2000.

Briefly Minister for the Environment and Water in the Howard Government in 2007, Turnbull was elected Leader of the Liberal Party in September 2008, becoming Leader of the Opposition. In November 2009, his support for the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme proposed by the Rudd Government split the Liberal Party, and in a ballot the following month Turnbull lost the leadership to Tony Abbott by one vote. Initially intending to leave politics, Turnbull remained in parliament and eventually became Minister for Communications in the Abbott Government in September 2013.