Published on the 15/09/2015 | Written by Beverley Head
Australia has appointed former communications minister Malcolm Turnbull as Prime Minister after a leadership spill last night which evicted Tony Abbott from the role…
Turnbull will be the nation’s 29th Prime Minister but its first technologically savvy one. As communications minister latterly, and spokesman in the area for the Liberal Party while in opposition, Turnbull immersed himself in understanding the technology of the national broadband network.
Once the Liberals came to power Turnbull oversaw an overhaul of both the nation’s NBN strategy and the company established to roll out the network.
The minister was already well versed in the sector having been one of the early investors in Ozemail, a pioneer of the Australian ISP market, since subsumed into iiNet and now TPG.
He was also instrumental in the establishment of the nation’s Digital Transformation Office, now under the leadership of Paul Shetler, which has the mandate to revolutionise the way in which Government services are delivered.
Turnbull is however no technology pushover. His version of the NBN is a much slower – but cheaper – alternative of the network first envisaged by the Labor. It is also important to remember that it was also on Turnbull’s watch that the Government pulled the financial plug on NICTA, which is now to be merged with CSIRO.
In his victory speech Turnbull however signalled that he fully grasped how technology was impacting enterprise and nation states; “We need to have an economic vision, a leadership that explains the great challenges and opportunities we face, describes the way we can handle challenges and seize opportunities…seeking to persuade rather than to lecture.”
Turnbull said that he planned to lead; “A thoroughly liberal government” delivering freedom to the individual and the market.
“Ensuring as the world becomes more and more competitive and greater opportunities arise that we are able to take advantage of that. The Australia of the future has to be agile, innovative, creative. We cannot be defensive and future proof ourselves. The disruption driven by technology … is our friend if we are agile and smart enough to take advantage of it.”
The newly minted Prime Minister has long coveted the top job. He has led the Liberals before, but was eventually rolled by Tony Abbott – who received one vote more than he did in an earlier party room spill. He was then undone ostensibly for his left leaning views, particularly with regard to climate change where he is not a sceptic.
This time around Turnbull was voted in with a margin of ten – securing 54 of the Party Room votes compared to 44 for Abbott. Julie Bishop was re-elected deputy leader.
While it is expected that Bishop will retain her foreign minister portfolio it remains to be seen who Turnbull picks as his new communications minister, though Paul Fletcher must seem a likely prospect. Whoever assumes the position will likely find themselves on a steep learning curve to match the prime minister’s grasp of the sector.
