09 April 2025

Trump election “too dark” to have been credible fiction: Malcolm Turnbull

Australians are living in “historical and tumultuous times” and what is happening in the US is “incredible”, former Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull told a roundtable at TechnologyOne.

“If you had written a script about a guy like Trump becoming President and doing the stuff he is doing, it would have been too apocalyptic and dark for anyone to produce – they’d say it’s just not credible,” Mr Turnbull said.

However, Mr Turnbull said it would be wrong to consider President Trump a “one man band”.

He said with hindsight it was possible to see how the process of deindustrialisation and rising inequity has created the conditions that resulted in his election.

Mr Turnbull said this was particularly powerful in the many medium sized cities in the US that comprised the “rust belt”, where people losing their jobs in blue collar industries did not have the option of finding new jobs in growing, technology industries.

Mr Turnbull made the remarks at an expert panel convened by TechnologyOne to discuss the historic challenges facing its customers, especially those in local government and education.

“A clear message from the panel was understanding communities needs to be at the heart of how we develop and deliver technology if we are to improve people’s lives rather than create disruption and unintended costs,” TechnologyOne CEO Ed Chung said.

In addition to Mr Turnbull former Senior Cabinet Minister the Hon Dr Craig Emerson, former Federal and State Departmental Secretary and Productivity Commission Chairman, Peter Harris AO, Simon Longstaff AO, Executive Director of the Ethics Centre, and former Defence official and AI expert Ben Emerson rounded out the panel, facilitated by Mr Chung and TechnologyOne Chief Operating Officer, Stuart MacDonald.

“We heard that trust – in institutions, in technology, in our public officials – will be make or break in the future,” Mr Chung said.

“And we heard that too many people in our bureaucracies have been too scared to buy from anyone but the big overseas technology companies, and we are now paying a price in lack of self-reliance,” Mr Chung said.

“As we prepare for our big Showcase events kicking off later this year, we at TechnologyOne are acutely aware that our customers, especially in local government and higher education, are highly exposed to the many challenges associated with the changes sweeping the world,” he said.

“It was a privilege to host such a distinguished group to discuss and debate in depth the megatrends impacting the world, and what they mean for us and our customers. It will guide us in our future R&D investment on behalf of our customers,” Mr Chung said.

“We want to sincerely thank all the panellists for making their time available to us.”