Prime Minister Turnbull's path to his goal

1976 – Despite his leftist ideology, Turnbull shows a willingness to join whatever political party he thinks he can use as a vehicle for his agenda. He tells radio broadcaster David Dale that he wants to be Prime Minister by age 40. Dale asks “For which party?”, and Turnbull responds “It doesn’t matter“.

In 1982, the left-liberal former Prime Minister Billy McMahon retired from his federal seat of Lowe. He endorsed Turnbull to replace him, but Turnbull decided not to contest the marginal seat. Then, in 1983, Turnbull ran for Liberal preselection in the very safe Liberal state seat of Mosman, but again lost, this time to Phillip Smiles.

9th December, 1986 – British journalist Michael Davie writes about Turnbull’s left-wing tendencies in The Age newspaper, saying: 

“There was evidently a moment when he entertained ambitions about orthodox politics, when he stood for pre-selection first in Wentworth. and then in Mosman. He tells people now that he has moved to the left. This is just as well, since Labor is in office in both Canberra and New South Wales.”

1993 – According to former Labor Senator, Graham Richardson, Turnbull came into his office and asked for his help to join the Labor Party and get a safe spot on the NSW Labor Senate ticket. Journalist Annabel Crabb, writing in the Quarterly Essay, says:

“The mid-1990s found Malcolm Turnbull discussing, with various Labor figures including Keating, the prospect of his recruitment as a Labor parliamentarian. “Initiated by Keating!” protests Turnbull, who says he refused the approach. “Initiated by Turnbull!” insists Graham Richardson, who wrote that Turnbull asked him in 1993 for a Senate spot but legged it on being told about the tender delights of grass-roots ALP membership.” 

11th September, 1994 – Democrats Senator, and future Labor MP, Cheryl Kernot confirms that Malcolm Turnbull has discussed with her the possibility of forming a new party together that would split the Liberal Party.

February, 1998 – Turnbull approaches Kim Beazley at the Constitutional Convention, regarding a Labor seat in parliament.

Early, 1999 – Turnbull approaches John Della Bosca regarding gaining a Labor seat in parliament.

Late, 1999 – In the lead-up to the republic referendum, Turnbull approaches federal Labor Senator and shadow Attorney-General Nick Bolkus, asking about gaining pre-selection for Labor. Bolkus recalls: 

“Malcolm, on more than one occasion, raised with me how he could get preselection in the Labor Party. It wasn’t something that I raised with him. I must admit I never thought Malcolm would be comfortable in the faction that I’m part of, the left, but it was something that he raised with me on a couple of occasions… I can remember at least two when the matter was raised by Malcolm, a genuine inquiry, I think it was an honest inquiry at the time. You know, he would often reflect about how Labor, he thought, was not going all that well under the leadership of Kim Beazley at the time, and whether someone like him would be able to add value to us and so on, but it was very much something that he was raising. “

On the night of his republic referendum defeat, Turnbull approached former Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke, with a desire to join the federal Labor Party and become a shadow Minister. Hawke claims Turnbull said: 

“Bob, the only thing I can do now is join the Labor Party.”

Turnbull also tells senior Labor staffer David Britton that he is “deeply pissed off with Howard” and that he had a “very different social agenda” to the then Prime Minister. He then allegedly asked Britton: 

“Don’t you think Kim Beazley would like somebody like me as his finance spokesman?”

2000 – On two separate occasions, Turnbull is said to have enthusiastically sought Labor endorsement on the grounds that he’d do a better job of leading the Labor Party than Kim Beazley. The alleged locations where this took place were dinner parties in Sydney and Adelaide.

December, 2000 – Turnbull changes tactics. He joins the Liberal Party, becomes a director of the Menzies Research Centre, and refuses to rule out running for pre-selection. Having already been beaten by the conservatives as an opponent, he will now try an alternative method – joining them and changing/sabotaging them from within. He wants both sides of the parliament controlled by so-called “progressives” to facilitate the furthering of that agenda and, of course, he still desperately wants to be Prime Minister to fulfill his unrelenting megalomania.

6th September, 2003 – NSW Labor Premier Bob Carr confirmed that, in the late 1980s, former NSW Labor Premier Neville Wran was “flogging” Turnbull to the NSW Labor Party machine as a possible state Labor leader.

5th October, 2003 – Turnbull makes explicit his intention to seek Liberal pre-selection for the federal seat of Wentworth, and he had been stacking the deck since July, at least. Most believe he made up his mind to run much earlier, and that speculation he would run for the Senate was merely a tactic to take attention away from his branch stacking in Wentworth. Commenting on Turnbull’s chances, former NSW Opposition Leader and former Wentworth MP, Peter Coleman, who knows Turnbull well, says: 

“Malcolm Turnbull carries a fair bit of baggage. He’s said some dreadful things about John Howard, not to mention the Queen, and he has also said some loving things about people like Neville Wran…”

Former federal Labor Minister Nick Bolkus, whom Turnbull had previously approached, multiple times, about getting Labor pre-selection, says Turnbull is less a threat to the Labor Party, than to the conservatives of the Liberal Party: 

“I don’t think we are as concerned as, for instance, Peter Costello might be, or Tony Abbott would be… I think probably Labor would welcome Malcolm Turnbull getting Liberal Party preselection.”

28th February, 2004 – Turnbull wins pre-selection in Wentworth by 88 votes to 70. Turnbull’s opponent, sitting member Peter King, calls it “the largest branch stack in Liberal history”

Turnbull wanted tom join Labor

21st September, 2008 – Turnbull loses his first Newspoll. It would be the first of 30 straight Newspoll losses.

16^th September 2015 - The reasons Malcolm Turnbull challenged Tony Abbott: Lack of economic credibility, leadership that insults people’s intelligence - and 30 bad opinion polls in a row

H/t Jim,  from http://stopturnbull.com/

See also Christopher Monckton's warning on The Push to get rid of Abbott.