It’s no Point Piper mansion, but it’s okay.
Newly minted Prime Minister and multimillionaire Malcolm Turnbull won’t be moving into Kirribilli House like his predecessor, choosing instead to continue living just across the harbour in his super schmancy Sydney mansion, for some reason.
On ABC‘s 7.30 last night, he told Leigh Sales that he and wife Lucy are pretty happy where they are now, actually.
“Lucy and I will continue to live … in our house in Sydney which of course is agreeably close to our grandson,” he said.
It probably doesn’t hurt that where they are now is also a waterfront mansion with a private boat shed.
I get it, I do.
But what’s to become of Kirribilli house then? That is, assuming the official prime ministerial residence even survived Tony Abbott’s I-just-got-fired-as-the-Prime-Minister-of-Australia blow out last week (we know a marble coffee table didn’t).
Turbull says he’ll be using it for “officially entertaining.”
“It’s a great location to use for charities and for opportunities to support good causes… We’ll certainly be doing that.”
Good causes, eh?
Well, if it’s good enough the Abbotts, I reckon it’s probably good enough to lend to some of the three million displaced Syrian refugees too.
It could even house a few of 40,000 asylum seekers already living in Australia and facing enormous barriers to safe, stable housing.
Or maybe, Turnbull could offer it to some of the 800 plus homeless people currently living on the streets of the City of Sydney — more than half of which sleep rough each night.
After all, the waiting time for social housing is more than a decade in most parts of the city.
What do you think, Turnbull?
Top Comments
AirBNB it and put it against the deficit.
Prior to Howard no PM lived at Kirribilli, they lived in the Lodge in Canberra. Kirribilli, like Admiralty House (the GG's Sydney residence) was used for official state functions and yes, lots and lots of charity events. The travel costs associated with having the PM living in Sydney are well documented. Personally I hope that once the renovations are finished the Turnbulls move into the Lodge but somehow I doubt it.