PM tells of pain of bullying and loss

MALCOLM Turnbull has revealed he was “pushed and thumped” as an eight-year-old by boys four years older at school, not long before his mother walked out on the family.

In a heartbreaking interview with The Australian Women’s Weekly, Mr Turnbull has given an insight to the traumatic time he suffered as a little boy and says it has given him a “keen appreciation” for the issue of bullying he is now tackling as Prime Minister.

His mother, Coral Lansbury, abandoned Malcolm and his father, Bruce, moving to New Zealand to pursue a relationship with another man, and he started boarding school not long after.

“I was missing my mother and it was a difficult time. I didn’t think that the boarding school was particularly well run. There was probably too much bullying,” he said.

“I was quite unhappy there.”

It was older and bigger boys who picked on a younger Mr Turnbull at boarding school, he recalls.

“I was pushed and thumped, and the difference between a boy who is eight and a boy who is 12 is enormous,” he said.

“I always stood up for myself, but I’ve got a keen appreciation of the problem of bullying.

“My observation as a man and as a father is that both boys and girls can be very cruel to each other.

But boys tend to be more physical than girls.”

Mr Turnbull and Lucy did the interview with the The Australian Women’s Weekly, which is on sale on Thursday, in January, around the same time he filmed a profile interview with 60 Minutes.

Their three grandchildren, Jack, four, Isla, two and Alice, one, also make an appearance in the shoot. Mr Turnbull re- cently revealed his fourth grandchild was due in April.

“Being a grandparent is fantastic.

“I highly recommend it to anyone,” Lucy Turnbull said.