Millionaire Malcolm Turnbull Gambles On Australian Poll

Canberra: Rich and famous, Malcolm Turnbull was already known as a brilliant lawyer, strident republican, successful tech entrepreneur and millionaire banker before he entered politics.

He had long been seen as prime ministerial material, and his toppling of unpopular conservative colleague Tony Abbott in September 2015 had been months in the making.

"We need a different style of leadership," Turnbull said shortly after ousting Abbott 54-44 in a dramatic Liberal Party room vote.

The silver-haired multi-millionaire pledged to provide economic leadership, while being a more consultative leader, restoring traditional cabinet government and ending policy-on-the-run.

But his efforts to spur innovation and growth have not landed well with the voting public, who despite their high expectations for the man who lives in a pink Sydney Harbour mansion have been confused by his conflicting messages.

Turnbull's decision to call a double dissolution election -- in which both houses of parliament are dissolved and re-elected -- is seen as a huge political gamble.

"This is a colossal gamble by a prime minister whose approval rating lead over opposition leader Bill Shorten has narrowed dramatically after months of perceived drift, mixed messages and internal tensions," Michael Gordon wrote in The Age in March.

But Turnbull, who shot to prominence in the 1980s in the "Spycatcher" trial in which he successfully defended former MI5 agent Peter Wright against the British government, is known for his powers of persuasion.

"He's a person of great intelligence," former Liberal Prime Minister John Howard has said, adding that he had the "capacity to explain economic concepts very clearly and very lucidly".

Although his support of gay marriage and for climate change action has been at odds with some of his conservative colleagues at times, Turnbull, 61, has stood by his convictions.

"I say what I think. I am, as my darling wife once said, 'The soul of indiscretion'," he once told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Passionate about politics

Although he has lived in Sydney's wealthy eastern suburbs his whole life, Turnbull's upbringing was difficult -- an only child reared by his hotel room broker father after his mother, a writer and academic, left.

He was educated at Sydney Grammar with the help of a scholarship and went on to be a Rhodes scholar at Oxford, before working as a journalist and then turning to the law.

From law he entered the corporate world, becoming a merchant banker with Goldman Sachs and then investing in technology start-ups, before spearheading a push for Australia to turn itself into a republic.

But he had long had a calling to go into public life and he entered parliament in 2004 and under Howard rose to be environment minister.

"Politics is his calling," his wife Lucy has said. "And that's, you know, that's what he's passionate about now."

But he has endured a bumpy ride -- while he was elected opposition leader in 2008 it was short-lived experience; he was dumped for Abbott in 2009 after bitter debate on climate change.

He was devastated and briefly toyed with quitting parliament but the ambition he had long harboured to lead his nation clearly never went away, and within weeks he was back and served as Abbott's communications minister.

Married to Lucy Hughes since 1980, with whom he has two adult children, the Turnbulls are a high-profile couple. Lucy was the first female Lord Mayor of Sydney.