“We need to have in this country — and we will have now — an economic vision, a leadership that explains the great challenges and opportunities that we face.
“Disruption we see driven by technology … is our friend, if we are agile and smart enough to take advantage of it.
“There has never been a more exciting time to be alive than today. And there has never been a more exciting time to be an Australian.”
Resonating around the business community, these were the words of newly appointed Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, at a press conference late on Monday evening.
Mr Turnbull’s move to challenge the leadership was met with predictable critique – it made the Liberal Party just like the Labor Party of June 2010. But while this criticism was inevitable and saw Deputy Prime Minister, Julie Bishop, keen to dispel their similarity with what she called a “Rudd-Gillard-Rudd” government, is such discussion really relevant?
Is failing to take a course of action for fear of being ‘like’ another really a good enough reason to lie low?
With any new leader ‘the proof of the pudding is in the eating,’ but while this has only just been dished up, the time already passed has shown that Australia was indeed demanding something new, and was not prepared to wait short of a year for the next election.
As the mining boom winds down and digital disruption continues to firm its grip across many industry sectors, Mr Turnbull seems to have appealed to an already captivated audience.
RBC Capital Markets head of economics, Su-Lin Ong, told Fairfax that Mr Turnbull’s leadership was expected to deliver a boost to business confidence.
Meanwhile Luke Sayers, chief executive of accountancy firm PwC told Fairfax “Australia needs strong leadership which clearly sets out a vision for the future.
“To that end it was encouraging to hear the Prime Minister designate say that disruption is our friend, and that the Australia of the future must be agile, innovative and creative.”
These sentiments continue to flow with both Peter Bradd, CEO of StartupAUS which promotes technology entrepreneurship and Al Blake, Principal Analyst for global technology giant, Ovum, congratulating the new Prime Minister.
Mr Turnbull “understands technology and, more importantly, appreciates what it can do to stimulate the economy and improve society,” said Mr Blake speaking of the Prime Minister’s background.
As criticisms of the ‘ousting’ morph into a release of repressed optimism, perhaps we should concede that one good judgment call has already been made by Mr Turnbull.
