Local MP leads federal opposition

BY PAM WALKER
Rumours about Malcolm Turnbull’s political future were doing the rounds in the Eastern Suburbs long before he made his move on the Wentworth electorate in 2003.

Many will still remember that the sitting member, Peter King, was none too happy about that and that a very ‘spirited’ branch stacking campaign followed.

Turnbull won out, was preselected for Wentworth, and entered Parliament in 2004. The rest, as they say, is history.

Former prime minister John Howard made Turnbull his parliamentary secretary for water and then environment minister.

Last year’s federal election was challenging what with campaigns about Tasmania’s pulp mill whipping up the locals but Turnbull survived, and in fact was one of the few Liberal MPs who enjoyed a swing towards the government.

But since Howard lost his seat and Peter Costello declined the leadership, there has been constant speculation about when Turnbull was going to challenge for the leadership.

On Tuesday, September 16 Turnbull was elected leader of the Liberal Party after Brendan Nelson called a spill.

Now he faces the task of uniting the party and many say there’s much work to be done to achieve that.