Thammasat University students interested in Australia, international relations, political science, diplomacy, history, and related subjects may find it useful to participate in a free 24 July Zoom book talk webinar on a memoir by The Honourable Malcolm Turnbull, former prime minister of Australia.

The event, on Wednesday, 24 July 2024 at 3pm Bangkok time, is presented by Rhodes Trust, the University of Oxford, the United Kingdom.

The TU Library collection includes several books about different aspects of Australian politics.

Students are invited to register at this link:

https://events.rhodeshouse.ox.ac.uk/scholars-library-malcolm-turnbull/

The event announcement states:

For our July event, in conversation with another Scholar, The Honourable Malcolm Turnbull AC, 29th Prime Minister of Australia (New South Wales & Brasenose 1978) will discuss his lively political memoir A Bigger Picture.

When Malcolm Turnbull took over the nation’s top job there was a sense of excitement in Australia. Sky-high opinion polls followed as the political outsider with a successful business, legal and media career took charge. The infighting that dogged politics for the best part of a decade looked to be over. But a right-wing insurgency brutally cut down Turnbull’s time in office after three years, leaving many Australians asking, ‘Why?’

Exceptionally candid and compelling, A Bigger Picture is the definitive narrative of Malcolm Turnbull’s prime ministership. He describes how he legalised same-sex marriage, established Snowy Hydro 2.0, stood up to Donald Trump, rebooted Australia’s defence industry and many more achievements – remarkable in their pace, significance and that they were delivered in the teeth of so much opposition. But it’s far more than just politics. Turnbull’s life has been filled with colourful characters and controversies, success and failure. From his early years in Sydney, growing up with a single father, to defending ‘Spycatcher’ Peter Wright against the UK Government; the years representing Kerry Packer, leading the Republican Movement and making millions in business; and finally toppling Tony Abbott to become Prime Minister of Australia. For the first time he tells it all – in his own words.

With revelatory insights on the workings of Canberra and the contentious events of Turnbull’s life, A Bigger Picture explores the strengths and vulnerabilities of one of Australia’s best-known and dynamic business and political leaders.

Mr. Turnbull’s memoir is available to TU students through the TU Library Interlibrary Loan (ILL) service.

In March, Mr. Turnbull stated on a Financial Times podcast:

Malcolm Turnbull: The best way I can describe Trump and Putin — and it was palpable, this impression — was like a 12-year-old boy who turns up to high school and meets, on the first day, the captain of the football team. And he’s in awe. You know, my hero, my hero has arrived.

Gideon Rachman: The prospect that Trump will return to the White House raises some pretty profound questions for countries such as Australia and Britain that look to the US as their most important partner and as the leader of the western alliance. Some politicians on the right in Britain, including former prime ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, have already all but endorsed Trump. Australian Conservatives have so far been much more cautious. So when I sat down with Malcolm Turnbull in his office in Sydney, I began our conversation by asking him how the Australian right would react if Trump won the US election.

Malcolm Turnbull: We will have to live with and deal with whoever the Americans elect as president. But it’s just simply disingenuous to suggest that there aren’t real consequences with the election of Trump part two. I mean, Trump was a chaotic, disruptive, destabilising force in international affairs during the four years of his first presidency. He undermined alliances and relationships in the west. He snuggled up to dictators and tyrants. I’ve seen it with Vladimir Putin. He’s in awe of Putin, there’s no question about that. He is fascinated with authoritarian leaders. You saw that it is bromance, self-described bromance with Kim Jong Un. He was similarly fascinated with Xi Jinping. He and the Republican right greatly adulate Viktor Orbán in Hungary. So this is not the American democratic values and ideals that we grew up with. It’s a different world.

Gideon Rachman: So where does that leave Australia and I in, like, the UK. What would you suggest we do if Trump wins?

Malcolm Turnbull: Well, the fundamental thing is we have to be more resilient and we have to be more self-reliant. I mean, America under Trump is less reliable. To pretend that that’s not the case is just self-delusion. And in a sense, Trump wants to be seen to be less reliable. He would say, this is how I get the Europeans to spend more money on their own defence. But, you know, where could a Trump Mark II lead us to? Most people feel he will sell Ukraine out. He will compel Ukraine to do a deal with Russia — presumably to give up the Donbas region and Crimea formally. And in effect, force them, simply by refusing to continue to provide military and financial support, force them to a negotiated deal. Now, whether that will be enough for Putin, who knows? Putin would see through Trump very easily. He knows exactly what he’s dealing with. How does he deal with China? Can he be relied on? The answer is that there is great uncertainty over that.

If you go back to 2016, when he was elected, I recall very vividly there was a meeting of Apec in Lima and the leaders of the Apec countries there. And the only topic on the agenda was: what next? There was a hope, indeed an expectation, that Trump would be institutionalised, that all of the crazy rhetoric on the campaign trail would be forgotten and the system would wrap its arms around him and he would become normalised. Well, of course, that was not the case. Quite the reverse happened. In some respects, he was wilder in office than he had been on the campaign trail. And I think he’s threatening to be even wilder again. So what the countries do, they will need, if they are smart, to be self-reliant. That may mean that they hedge closer to the authoritarian states in order to cut deals with them. You could see people in eastern Europe doing that, at one strategy, potentially. Another is to acquire nuclear weapons. Japan, of course, has a unique catastrophic history with nuclear weapons. But faced with China, faced with an uncertainty about whether America’s guarantee of protection is always gonna be available, you could see the arguments for . . . 

Gideon Rachman: And Australia, is that a debate here?

Malcolm Turnbull: No, it’s not, and I don’t think we would have the capacity to get there even if we wanted to. But Japan certainly could. I mean, Japan has got the technological capability to build their own nuclear weapons relatively quickly.

Gideon Rachman: I’ve heard six weeks.

Malcolm Turnbull: Well, I’ve heard six months. But either way, it’s not a very long time. But you can say that. And so if you start to get nuclear proliferation as people seek to be more independent, because the problem is if Trump is saying you’re on your own, the one thing people know is that if you’ve got nuclear weapons, you won’t be invaded. I mean, does anyone imagine the regime in North Korea would still be there if they didn’t have nukes?

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)