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Quarterly Essay #34
Stop At Nothing: The Life and Adventures of Malcolm Turnbull
What does Malcolm Turnbull stand for? In Stop at Nothing Annabel Crabb tells the story of the man who would be prime minister.
Based on extensive interviews with Turnbull as well as those who have worked with him, this is an essay full of revelations. Crabb delves into young Malcolm's university exploits - which included co-authoring a musical with Bob Ellis - and his remarkable relationship with Kerry Packer, the man for whom he was at first a prized attack dog, and then a mortal enemy. She asks whether Turnbull - colourful, aggressive, humorous and ruthless - has what it takes to re-invigorate the Australian Liberal Party in the wake of John Howard. She discusses his vexed relationship with Kevin Rudd, and the looming presence of Peter Costello. This is a scintillating portrait by one of the country's most incisive reporters.
"How would Australia be different if he were prime minister? What are his most closely held policy convictions? I asked dozens of Malcolm Turnbull's political colleagues this question, asking them to name three. Many of them had to pause before responding. 'You'll have to excuse me. I'm eating some chocolate,' was the best initial response, from a Liberal on the other end of a phone line." —Annabel Crabb, Stop At Nothing
Based on extensive interviews with Turnbull as well as those who have worked with him, this is an essay full of revelations. Crabb delves into young Malcolm's university exploits - which included co-authoring a musical with Bob Ellis - and his remarkable relationship with Kerry Packer, the man for whom he was at first a prized attack dog, and then a mortal enemy. She asks whether Turnbull - colourful, aggressive, humorous and ruthless - has what it takes to re-invigorate the Australian Liberal Party in the wake of John Howard. She discusses his vexed relationship with Kevin Rudd, and the looming presence of Peter Costello. This is a scintillating portrait by one of the country's most incisive reporters.
"How would Australia be different if he were prime minister? What are his most closely held policy convictions? I asked dozens of Malcolm Turnbull's political colleagues this question, asking them to name three. Many of them had to pause before responding. 'You'll have to excuse me. I'm eating some chocolate,' was the best initial response, from a Liberal on the other end of a phone line." —Annabel Crabb, Stop At Nothing
97 pages, Paperback
Published June 1, 2009
8 people are currently reading
214 people want to read
About the author
Annabel Crabb
16 books320 followersAnnabel Crabb has been a journalist since 1997, beginning her career at Adelaide’s Advertiser and moving on to cover politics first for the Age and then for the Sydney Morning Herald, where she was a columnist and sketch-writer. She is the author of Losing It: The Inside Story of the Labor Party in Opposition (2005) and the Quarterly Essay Stop at Nothing: The Life and Adventures of Malcolm Turnbull, which won a 2009 Walkley Award. She is presently the ABC’s chief online political writer.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
March 2, 2019
“Smart boy, not much dough, abandoned by his mother at eight, left alone a lot as a kid, sent to boarding school, loving but absent father, forced to rely on own brilliance. Brisk university life, period of feckless womanising, moonlights as brilliant young journalist, snapped up by grumpy tycoon. Rhodes scholar, famed barrister, fabulous clever wife, adorable family, filthy-rich banker, substantial philanthropist, stormed into parliament, breezed into cabinet, seized the Liberal leadership … and that’s as far as we’ve got.”
- Annabel Crabb
This just about accounts for all that which Annabel Crabb has applied herself to exploring about Malcolm Turnbull’s life and adventures using her uniquely humorous style that is so incredibly beguiling. The way she writes about Turnbull, with frequent light-hearted jibes and caricature, is effective for so many reasons but principally because it allows a reader to be open-minded where they might otherwise be sensitive. And of course, that the time it was written and edited (2016), many people had reason to be sensitive about the way Australian politics has been run. They still do. But despite this environment being prima facie so utterly unsuitable for subtle criticism, Crabb has been successful in offering just that. Were the reader a extremely committed Turnbull fan, they might disagree with Crabb on numerous points regarding his character, or diminish their importance, and yet you can still picture them taking the underlying sharper criticism in good humour thanks to how approachable Crabb makes the criticism. This is especially impressive because much of her feature piece is about the Man’s character, which is so much more easily contested than things perhaps a little more objective like policy and professional credentials. Therefore, to give just a vague impression of this feature piece by way of a summary introduction, Crabb combines the best of stand-up with the best of veteran political correspondence. However, there are a few other things worth describing at some greater length either for their analytical merit or their entertainment value (and therefore capacity to deliver a lasting impression).
“He was a board member at the Nine Network. He advised Westpac on the handling of its $250 million loan to Channel Ten, which made the bank Ten’s principal secured creditor. He advised Hudson Conway on its bid for the Seven Network. And he had already taken nearly $10 million in fees from Fairfax, being for extensive advice to the doomed Warwick Fairfax, including a recommendation to sell the Age newspaper, which Fairfax ignored.”
Since this feature is essentially a prep for the informed public ahead of the Turnbull prime ministership it’s worth mentioning the more hard-and-fast details that Crabb considers, and one would assume she selected for their relevance to judging his suitability for the highest Australian public office. Above is a similar sort of summary as I provided at the start of this review. However, this time round it is clearly focused on the professional credentials of Malcolm Turnbull, and particularly his credentials as someone who would be able to successfully lead the Australian government to successful economic reform. However, she still acts the consummate journalist and offers an inference about his character that is without explicit statement of whether the inference reveals something positive or negative. As she explains, “chutzpah is a pretty good term to describe Malcolm’s most striking attribute in business, too. Institutionalised shamelessness would also come close”. She appears to expect this to cause a rift between Malcolm and some (probably younger) readers though and aptly proffers Turnbull’s record for philanthropy. Most notably she describes how…
“He and his wife Lucy are compulsive givers to charities, hospitals and church enterprises. Recently he handed a personal cheque for $50,000 to the Sydney Cancer Centre at a function, asking to remain anonymous (and this story did not come from Turnbull). He gave another $50,000 to charity at the 2007 Press Gallery Midwinter Ball. Most years, the Turnbulls give away somewhere in the region of half-a-million dollars.”
This strikes a reasonable (as opposed to contrived) balance.
To move onto the more idiosyncratic and entertaining attributes of her writing though we also arrive at the judgements more likely to affect the reader more concerned with Turnbull’s moral fibre. Again though, Crabb ensures that what she is offering to the reader has a definite relevance rather than being some gratuity that could have the effect of poisoning the Turnbull well ahead of an important period for his garnering of votes. Such an approach is perhaps most clearly visible in her criticism that “In circumstances – like the republic referendum – where he is required to chart a direction for others to follow, Turnbull’s results tend to be poorer”. In circumstances where leaders have been elected and then aborted by their party this is certainly of great concern. The judgements of character she provides in addition also seem to be carefully considered as they are linked to concerns about his ability to successfully lead a government. For example, there may be concerns about future party solidarity when “Good Malcolm is tremendous fun. Bad Malcolm, however, can be anywhere on the scale from distant to vicious, none of it good. Bad Malcolm is well known for blowing up at his staff”. Once again though, she is fair-minded through elaborating on the nearby positives.
“But it’s deeper than that – Turnbull, for all his notorious rages and impatience, does not appear to be driven by hate. And his reaction to people who hate him isn’t automatically to hate in return.”
All this taken together mean that what you have in your hands when you take-up this feature is probably one of the more engrossing Quarterly Essays you’re likely to read. And that is so important in a political climate that has generated even further mistrust in politicians and an associated disinterest in surveying the Australian political scene. I recommend this to anyone looking for a way to begin understanding the forces at work in Australian politics. Though it may seem outdated in 2019, there are some valuable lessons in this feature.
- Annabel Crabb
This just about accounts for all that which Annabel Crabb has applied herself to exploring about Malcolm Turnbull’s life and adventures using her uniquely humorous style that is so incredibly beguiling. The way she writes about Turnbull, with frequent light-hearted jibes and caricature, is effective for so many reasons but principally because it allows a reader to be open-minded where they might otherwise be sensitive. And of course, that the time it was written and edited (2016), many people had reason to be sensitive about the way Australian politics has been run. They still do. But despite this environment being prima facie so utterly unsuitable for subtle criticism, Crabb has been successful in offering just that. Were the reader a extremely committed Turnbull fan, they might disagree with Crabb on numerous points regarding his character, or diminish their importance, and yet you can still picture them taking the underlying sharper criticism in good humour thanks to how approachable Crabb makes the criticism. This is especially impressive because much of her feature piece is about the Man’s character, which is so much more easily contested than things perhaps a little more objective like policy and professional credentials. Therefore, to give just a vague impression of this feature piece by way of a summary introduction, Crabb combines the best of stand-up with the best of veteran political correspondence. However, there are a few other things worth describing at some greater length either for their analytical merit or their entertainment value (and therefore capacity to deliver a lasting impression).
“He was a board member at the Nine Network. He advised Westpac on the handling of its $250 million loan to Channel Ten, which made the bank Ten’s principal secured creditor. He advised Hudson Conway on its bid for the Seven Network. And he had already taken nearly $10 million in fees from Fairfax, being for extensive advice to the doomed Warwick Fairfax, including a recommendation to sell the Age newspaper, which Fairfax ignored.”
Since this feature is essentially a prep for the informed public ahead of the Turnbull prime ministership it’s worth mentioning the more hard-and-fast details that Crabb considers, and one would assume she selected for their relevance to judging his suitability for the highest Australian public office. Above is a similar sort of summary as I provided at the start of this review. However, this time round it is clearly focused on the professional credentials of Malcolm Turnbull, and particularly his credentials as someone who would be able to successfully lead the Australian government to successful economic reform. However, she still acts the consummate journalist and offers an inference about his character that is without explicit statement of whether the inference reveals something positive or negative. As she explains, “chutzpah is a pretty good term to describe Malcolm’s most striking attribute in business, too. Institutionalised shamelessness would also come close”. She appears to expect this to cause a rift between Malcolm and some (probably younger) readers though and aptly proffers Turnbull’s record for philanthropy. Most notably she describes how…
“He and his wife Lucy are compulsive givers to charities, hospitals and church enterprises. Recently he handed a personal cheque for $50,000 to the Sydney Cancer Centre at a function, asking to remain anonymous (and this story did not come from Turnbull). He gave another $50,000 to charity at the 2007 Press Gallery Midwinter Ball. Most years, the Turnbulls give away somewhere in the region of half-a-million dollars.”
This strikes a reasonable (as opposed to contrived) balance.
To move onto the more idiosyncratic and entertaining attributes of her writing though we also arrive at the judgements more likely to affect the reader more concerned with Turnbull’s moral fibre. Again though, Crabb ensures that what she is offering to the reader has a definite relevance rather than being some gratuity that could have the effect of poisoning the Turnbull well ahead of an important period for his garnering of votes. Such an approach is perhaps most clearly visible in her criticism that “In circumstances – like the republic referendum – where he is required to chart a direction for others to follow, Turnbull’s results tend to be poorer”. In circumstances where leaders have been elected and then aborted by their party this is certainly of great concern. The judgements of character she provides in addition also seem to be carefully considered as they are linked to concerns about his ability to successfully lead a government. For example, there may be concerns about future party solidarity when “Good Malcolm is tremendous fun. Bad Malcolm, however, can be anywhere on the scale from distant to vicious, none of it good. Bad Malcolm is well known for blowing up at his staff”. Once again though, she is fair-minded through elaborating on the nearby positives.
“But it’s deeper than that – Turnbull, for all his notorious rages and impatience, does not appear to be driven by hate. And his reaction to people who hate him isn’t automatically to hate in return.”
All this taken together mean that what you have in your hands when you take-up this feature is probably one of the more engrossing Quarterly Essays you’re likely to read. And that is so important in a political climate that has generated even further mistrust in politicians and an associated disinterest in surveying the Australian political scene. I recommend this to anyone looking for a way to begin understanding the forces at work in Australian politics. Though it may seem outdated in 2019, there are some valuable lessons in this feature.
January 8, 2019
This was a really enjoyable and insightful book on the former Prime Minister of Australia. I discovered things I did not know about him and saw the mechanisations of the left v's the right wings of the Liberal Party. Each time I read a biography of a former politician I become frustrated that they don't allow us (the public) to se the real them as opposed to the political image. I am sure if they did it would result in ore votes. A very well written book.
May 10, 2017
Fun, Turnbull is an interesting character and Crabb annoys me less in this than she usually does
November 1, 2015
Riotous. Much more entertaining than David Marr's recent profile of Bill Shorten. Marr's a splendid raconteur, so the conclusion must be that international jet-setting, espionage trials and media empire carve-ups are simply better source material than factional in-fighting in the Victorian labour movement.
Some particular favourites from the numerous wonderful anecdotes:
1) the Cat incident
2) his conversation with Kinnock during the Spycatcher trial "Kinnock sounded quite alarmed. 'But the real villain is the PM, not Michael. He's sick you know. So's Rothschild for that matter. They're both old men, this business could kill them.' I was quite surprised at this touch of humanity. It was so unlike a politician to be concerned about the health of his opponents. I didn't know what to say, so I made a joke. 'Oh well, Comrade, everyone has to make sacrifices for the revolution. Why not start with Havers and Rothschild?' I heard a gasp at the other end."
3) Conrad Black's comment during the split with Kerry Packer "Black rang me, to try to persuade me [to resign]. I said 'Conrad, if you want to be an assassin, you have to get blood on your hands.' He said to me, and I thought it was quite a good answer: 'You don't just want me to have blood on my hands, you want my bloody prints on the dagger.'"
The conclusion I came away with is that given the choice between dinner with Shorten or Turnbull, you'd definitely go with Malcolm. As for who'd make the better PM, the good people of Australia get to choose in about a year's time. Neither man has a history of winning open popularity contests (Bill prefers the silent knife, Mal the bully lawyer's threat of litigation). It'll be an fascinating election.
Some particular favourites from the numerous wonderful anecdotes:
1) the Cat incident
2) his conversation with Kinnock during the Spycatcher trial "Kinnock sounded quite alarmed. 'But the real villain is the PM, not Michael. He's sick you know. So's Rothschild for that matter. They're both old men, this business could kill them.' I was quite surprised at this touch of humanity. It was so unlike a politician to be concerned about the health of his opponents. I didn't know what to say, so I made a joke. 'Oh well, Comrade, everyone has to make sacrifices for the revolution. Why not start with Havers and Rothschild?' I heard a gasp at the other end."
3) Conrad Black's comment during the split with Kerry Packer "Black rang me, to try to persuade me [to resign]. I said 'Conrad, if you want to be an assassin, you have to get blood on your hands.' He said to me, and I thought it was quite a good answer: 'You don't just want me to have blood on my hands, you want my bloody prints on the dagger.'"
The conclusion I came away with is that given the choice between dinner with Shorten or Turnbull, you'd definitely go with Malcolm. As for who'd make the better PM, the good people of Australia get to choose in about a year's time. Neither man has a history of winning open popularity contests (Bill prefers the silent knife, Mal the bully lawyer's threat of litigation). It'll be an fascinating election.
January 4, 2014
Oh Crabby, i heart you. Bottom line is, there aren;t too many people who know more about the machinations of australian politics than Annabel Crabb and her ability to get inside the worlds of pols like Turnbull, is legendary. And she seems to do it without making enemies. Always a handy trait in a journalist. This book may not change your opinion of Turnbull but at least you'll be making that opinion from a basis of some knowledge.
July 18, 2016
An interesting read in the leadup to the election... a good examination of MT and his history, with the author maintaining a careful lack of judgement. I wouldn't have minded a little more criticism, though reading and listening to a lot of Annabel Crabb means I had probably heard some of it already and it lost its potency. Looking forward to the follow up in a few years!
June 13, 2016
mmm Thought I couldn't support Turnbull as PM until I started reading the companion book on Bill Shorten.
A very easy to read extended essay, gives a picture of a highly intelligent, driven man who will stop at almost nothing to get his own way. I am sure that The Prince was on his early reading reading list.
A very easy to read extended essay, gives a picture of a highly intelligent, driven man who will stop at almost nothing to get his own way. I am sure that The Prince was on his early reading reading list.
June 23, 2016
Usual brilliance from the delightful Ms Crabb. An entertaining read as you'd expect. I thought I knew just about everything about our PM, but there's a few (somewhat disturbing) gems in there.
Also available as its own book, published separately and part of a book pair with one written by David Marr on Bill Shorten (which I'm currently reading.)
Also available as its own book, published separately and part of a book pair with one written by David Marr on Bill Shorten (which I'm currently reading.)
October 19, 2017
As always, Annabel Crabb delivers! A couple of dryish patches detailing events, but the rest is highly readable and provides great insight into Turnbull and some of the other key players in the current Australian political landscape. Recommended.
December 25, 2015
This was written while Turnbull was Opposition leader. Crabb's style seems fitting for the man.
October 3, 2016
I loved every page of this book both the authorship of Annabelle Crabb and the fascinating content of Malcolm Turnbull. Brilliant all round.
January 2, 2017
Interesting if brief account of the workings and background of Turnbull.
January 2, 2017
Chronologically random, not enough analysis but also some astute insights. I do like Crabb but her writing style is journalese witticisms.
February 25, 2017
Amusing and insightful, especially given recent events.
March 12, 2018
This is the second time I have read this book. It was certainly more enjoyable in the second reading. Easy and informative.
September 13, 2020
Engaging, insightful and beautifully written. Being a Greens voter was not a barrier to enjoying this book immensely.
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December 1, 20184/5
December 19, 2019
I learned so much from this essay. I enjoyed the way it ebbed from anecdotes of casual encounters to a factual account.
June 19, 2021
Excellent. Easy read about the foibles and behaviour of Malcolm Turnbull
December 30, 2021
An insightful and thoroughly researched political essay written with Annabel Crabb’s trademark humour and flair.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews