JLF 2024 | Australia’s former president Malcolm Turnbull on relations with India, climate change and more

“Maybe 11 out of 10” is how the former Prime Minister of Australia, Malcolm Turnbull rates India-Australia’s current relations. The former politician and businessman who served as the 29th Prime Minister of Australia is a climate change advocate. After retiring from politics, Turnbull serves as the president of the International Hydropower Association, Chairman of the Green Hydrogen Organisation and is involved in developing renewable energy projects with his wife Lucy.  In 2020, Turnbull released his bestselling political memoir A Bigger Picture.

In an exclusive conversation with CNBC-TV18, on the sidelines of the Jaipur Literature Festival, Turnbull talks about Australia’s current relations with India, climate change, his favourite writers and more.

“We two countries (India and Australia) have shared democratic values. We have an enormous amount in common. Australia is a proudly multicultural society. Over a million Australians are of Indian heritage so you could not imagine modern Australia without the contribution of Australians who have an Indian background. Our relationship with India is not just about cricket or economics or trade. It’s family,” he says.

Turnbull had experience in law, journalism, and banking before his time as a politician and subsequently the prime minister. He believes that both politics and businesses are different and very hard in their respect. “But I think it’s better to have politicians who have had life’s experience outside of politics, not all of them, but it’s good to have people there who know what the real world is like,” he says.

I had always thought of writing a memoir, Turnbull says. So when he got out of politics, he finally started working on his memoir.  Turnbull has been an advocate for climate change and renewable energy. He believes that young people are much more conscious of the consequences of climate change. On a section of people’s claim about climate change being a hoax, Turnbull says “You may not believe in gravity, but if you step out of the second-floor window, you will find yourself confronted with the reality. Physics does not care what your opinion is about gravity. And it’s the same with global warming.”

Turnbull, one of the speakers at JLF 2024, says he’s a big reader. He has grown up reading Shakespeare and Dickens. As a kid, I loved I particularly loved Tolkien. I used to read all of Lord of the Rings a couple of times a year. So yeah, I’m a big reader. I read a lot of history. A lot of classics, I love William Dalrymple’s books now.”