ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
The Prime Minister has laughed off the suggestion that he pretended to be horrified at the Royal Commission’s findings this afternoon, telling reporters he always thought the banking sector was all above board.
“I can assure you, when I was a banker, things were a lot different,” said Malcolm Turnbull this afternoon in Sydney.
“Honestly, these people are crooks. I can’t believe I put this off for so long. There will be prison sentences handed down as a result of this investigation,”
“Once again, I knew nothing of the sort of conduct the Commission has undercovered and any suggestion to the contrary will be met with legal action. Good day.”
Many journalists, even ones from News Corp publications, couldn’t help but laugh at the end of the press conference – with some saying they don’t know how he can say that after working in Emerging Markets at Goldman Sachs for so long.
But Turnbull is reportedly sticking to his guns, explaining that it’s mostly the everyday transaction banks that are the real focus of this investigation, not the larger investment banks in which the Prime Minister cut his teeth.
As a portly, swashbuckling Errol Flynn-type back in the 90s, Malcolm Turnbull bouned from merchant bank to merchant bank before finding himself sitting opposite Kerry Packer on Sydney’s fabled Park Street.
“Prior to working with the Packer Family, I was at Macquarie Bank. We invested in modern Australia, in infrastructure projects and public works. We aren’t the bad guys.”
One reporter from the SBS rolled his eyes before being dragged out of the press conference by his ponytail while the Prime Minister laughed.
More to come.
