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Talk of father gets Turnbull teary

The prime minister has emotionally spoken of his relationship with his late father in front of students at a Sydney school.

2 min read

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Source: AAP


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Malcolm Turnbull has become emotional as he discussed his late father with a group of school students in Sydney.

The prime minister discussed the challenges of being a politician, how he isn't scared to meet world leaders and the merits of the Snowy Hydro 2.0 scheme with students from South Coogee Public School.

But he was visibly emotional when he started discussing his father, Bruce, who had a cattle farm in the Hunter Valley.

"I was very, very close to my father because my mum left us when I was actually about your age ... and so my dad brought me up," Mr Turnbull said.

"He was like my big brother ... We were just two guys living together. He taught me how to cook, not nearly as well as my wife Lucy I might add, but he also taught me how to iron and clean up."

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The children gasped when he began talking about his father's death.

"He was killed in an aeroplane crash in 1982 when I was 28 and he was 56 so it was very, very sudden and it was a terrible tragedy as you can imagine. So what I did was I buried him in the front garden of his property because I couldn't bear to be parted from him.

"So I never sold it (the farm) ... we've kept it and maintained it. It's going well. It's a good property."


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