Extracts from Malcolm Turnbull’s book reveal surprising focal point: Hayley Cormann

Malcolm Turnbull’s book is not the only reference to Hayley Cormann, prominent lawyer and wife to Mathias Cormann.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann with his wife Hayley Ross. Picture: Sean Davey.

Media Diary’s scoop last week revealing the first leaked extracts of Malcolm Turnbull’s autobiography revealed a surprising focal point of text messages between the ex-PM and his former cabinet colleague, Mathias Cormann: prominent Perth lawyer Hayley Cormann, the finance minister’s wife.

Cormann told Turnbull in one text that his better half had been “genuinely traumatised” by the leadership turmoil that had eventually seen him withdraw his support for the then-PM. Turnbull bitingly replied that he “well understood how disappointed your wife is in your conduct”.

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Turnbull’s upcoming book is not the only reference to Hayley Cormann in the literature that has come out over the last few months about the fateful events of August 2018.

An interesting vignette comes in Niki Savva’s Plots and Prayers, in which she mentions a chat she had with Cormann on August 20, the day before Peter Dutton’s first leadership challenge against Turnbull.

Savva’s book noted that the finance minister had mentioned that he’d consulted his wife about Turnbull’s position and what he would do about it.

Savva wrote: “I asked Cormann on Monday if he was sticking with Turnbull. He said he was. He also said he had talked it over with his wife, Hayley, and that he would resign if anything happened.”

Of course, we now know Cormann’s resignation never came. The finance minister instead decided three days later to withdraw his support for Turnbull. That change of heart might offer some insight into why Hayley Cormann felt so “traumatised”, in her husband’s words, by that week’s events.

Read Nick Tabakoff’s full Media Diary on Monday in the paper and online.