Where Our New PM Stands On The Issues That Matter To Us

No more budgy smugglers and raw onion jokes, we have a new PM and it just could be the best thing that’s happened to Australia in five years.

Malcolm Turnbull is the straight-shooting self-made millionaire who is surprisingly popular for an Australian politician, and who has publicly admitted he has desperately wanted to sit in the throne of Australian parliament and lead the country since missing out on the leadership by one vote in 2008.

Well Mal, today is your day. You booted Tony to the curb and to be honest, we are pretty bloody happy about it.

Last night, Turnbull defeated Tony Abbott 54 votes to 44 in the fifth leadership spill in eight years, and has now been sworn in as Australia’s 29th Prime Minister.

So what do we need to know about our new PM?

Malcolm Turnbull is different. Although he may need to keep the Party’s conservative ideologues inside the Liberal tent, we have already seen him poke the bear a few times and we are sure he will spark more than a few fires in the next few months. He is not a political apparatchik or white bread politician “” he is interesting.

To quickly name of his accomplishments, Turnbull has been a journalist on The Bulletin, as Kerry Packer’s company secretary and corporate counsel, as the man who orchestrated Packer’s successful rebuttal of sensational allegations emerging from the Costigan royal commission, as lead lawyer in the defence of former UK intelligence officer Peter Wright against a failed British government attempt to suppress his book, as an investment banker and investor, initiating some spectacularly successful deals; and as the driving force behind the Australian Republican Movement.

He is also incredibly wealthy according to some estimates, he is worth about $120 million reflected in Malcolm and Lucy Turnbull’s  magnificent residence in Sydney’s ultra-exclusive Point Piper.

His wife, Lucy, is a lawyer, author, onetime Lord Mayor of Sydney, and apparently the key counsel to her husband. It has already been said that she is the other half of what is likely to emerge as the nation’s most powerful couple.

But before we give Mal the big thumbs up and start printing Turnbull t-shirts, there are a few things we need to straighten out…

Will Malcolm Continue His Support  For Marriage Equality?

Turnbull has been a long-term vocal supporter of marriage equality, and stated his support for the Liberals to adopt a conscience vote on the issue in the lead-up to the Coalition party room meeting in August that rejected it.

However, sources close to Turnbull have said that at this stage, he would stick with the “party position on a plebiscite on marriage equality” after taking the top job last night.

With opposition leader Bill Shorten already expressing his support for gay marriage, it is now the first time in Australian politics where both leaders of the major parties are for equality. Will Turnbull turn around on his former opinion? We just have to wait and see.

And, will Malcolm Push To Change The Paid Parental Leave?

When Tony Abbott announced the confusing and controversial Paid Parental Leave plans early this year “” although yet to come into place “” Malcolm Turnbull spoke out against the move, saying mothers were entitled to receive whatever parental leave was available.

It came after the Government announced mothers who received paid parental leave from their employer as part of their employer schemes would not receive paid parental leave from the government. They called it double dipping “” and many mothers, especially hard working nurses, were furious.

Well, that could all be in the past with Turnbull as top dog, after he publicly told the media in May it was important to “show due empathy and concern” for mothers at an important time in their lives.

Only time will tell if Malcolm Turnbull can lead the country, but it’s certainly a brighter day from where I am sitting.