Do we like Malcolm Turnbull?
Our score: 6 out of 10. A decent public record with real stains: a Safe Schools review under right-wing pressure and hardline asylum votes, balanced by the marriage law and years of climate advocacy.
Turnbull was Prime Minister from 2015 until the Liberal party room dumped him in August 2018, 45 votes to 40. He has long argued the problem was never that he'd lose the next election. On the BBC he said colleagues' concern was “that I would win it”, which tells you how he sees that night.
The Safe Schools stain is the big one for this page. In February 2016 he ordered a review of the anti-bullying program for LGBTI students after Coalition conservatives, including Senator Cory Bernardi, and the Australian Christian Lobby pushed for it to be defunded. The Australian Education Union called it a “disappointing capitulation to extreme conservatives within the Coalition”. He was caving to the backbench, not leading it, but kids paid the price.
Marriage equality is murkier than the highlight reel. His government ran the 2017 postal survey, which returned 61.6 per cent yes, and the law passed Parliament that December, with Turnbull declaring “Australia has done it.” But They Vote For You's tally has him consistently voting for a plebiscite and against marriage equality, so he got there by the long road, not the front door.
On the harm check, the voting record is where it gets uncomfortable. They Vote For You shows him consistently voting for turning back asylum boats and against removing children from immigration detention, and against a carbon price and ARENA. Out of office he has called global warming “the big overarching threat” and blamed the fossil fuel lobby and Murdoch media for blocking action. I found no harmful company and nothing from him aimed at trans people, but the votes keep this at an asterisk.
Nothing brand new lately, but he's still loud. In February 2026 he told the Liberals they face an “existential crisis” and accused them of chasing the approval of the Sky News audience. In an AFP interview that month he pushed for a republic with a head of state elected by parliament and called AUKUS a “terrible deal”.
He's also happy to pick fights with the powerful. In March 2025 Donald Trump called him a “weak and ineffective leader”, and Turnbull answered by calling Trump a bully. In 2023 he told the Robodebt Royal Commission he believed the scheme was legal while he was in office and that he raised concerns; the scheme was later ruled illegal, so that one is a contested stain, not a verdict.