Australia's New PM Laughs off House of Cards Comparison
Australia's new prime minister laughed off the idea Monday that he and his high-powered wife are Australia's answer to "House of Cards", joking that the only similarity between himself and Frank Underwood is that they both have rowing machines.
Malcolm Turnbull, the multi-millionaire former journalist, deposed Tony Abbott in an internal Liberal Party vote a week ago to become prime minister.
On Monday he faced the tongue-in-cheek suggestion that he and his wife, philanthropist and former lord mayor of Sydney Lucy Turnbull, could be compared to the ruthless characters of Frank and Claire Underwood from the hit Netflix show.
The US political drama documents Frank Underwood's murderous rise to become President of the United States with the coldly unyielding support of his philanthropist wife Claire, who harbors political ambitions of her own.
"I have nothing in common with Frank Underwood other than that we both use a rowing machine," Turnbull joked to the Seven Network's Sunrise program. "But I've got a different model."
He spoke as his wife said she was still in the process of reviewing her business portfolio for potential conflicts one week after her husband's swift rise to power.
The 57-year-old former lawyer and investment banker is chair of bio tech firm Prima Biomed and deputy chair of Sealink Travel, and has links to academia and the arts.
She is also the honorary president of the German-Australian Chamber of Commerce and on the boards of other companies and not-for-profit organisations, and is the author of a book about Sydney.
"I am still working things out in relation to my commitments and any possible or potential conflicts," Lucy Turnbull told The Australian newspaper.
The power couple, who married in 1980 and have two adult children, live in a luxurious home in Sydney's waterfront Point Piper.
Source: Agence France Presse
| Copyright © 2012 Naharnet.com. All Rights Reserved. | https://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/190228 |