‘It could be worse, you could end up a politician’: Malcolm Turnbull reappears at New York event with Sir Harold Evans

Malcolm Turnbull has appeared at a New York event with British-American newspaper editor Sir Harold Evans.

Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Picture: AFP

Malcolm Turnbull has appeared at a New York event with British-American newspaper editor Sir Harold Evans, recollecting their first meeting in 1975, and warning of the dangers posed by trade wars.

New York-based Australian journalist Michelle Nichols, who is Reuters United Nations bureau chief, tweeted photographs of the pair in conversation.

Ms Nichols said they had discussed their first meeting, during which Sir Harold told Mr Turnbull to “stop studying law because it was boring, but then added that it could be worse — you could end up becoming a politician.”

NSW Liberal senator and former John Howard chief of staff Arthur Sinodinos, who returned to parliament while on sick leave after receiving cancer treatment to vote for Mr Turnbull in last month’s leadership spill, has liked the tweet.

Former #Australia PM @TurnbullMalcolm speaking with @Reuters @sirharryevans in New York City. They met in 1975 and Sir Harry told Turnbull to stop studying law because it was boring, but then added that it could be worse - you could end up becoming a politician..... pic.twitter.com/0uZFvA41VI

— Michelle Nichols (@michellenichols) September 20, 2018

The former PM also reportedly commented on US President Donald Trump’s approach to trade, saying: “The United States needs to set out a very clear statement of what it wants to achieve and the basis for it.”

“I don’t think anyone wins from trade wars,” the former Prime Minister said, reportedly adding that Britain was seriously looking at joining the trans-Pacific Partnership.

Sir Harold, who is currently editor-at-large of Reuters, was editor of Britain’s Sunday Times from 1967 to 1981.

He has also held senior positions at The Atlanic Monthly and the New York Daily News, and founded Conde Nast Traveler.

As communications minister in 2014, Mr Turnbull told a Lowy Institute event Sir Harold was his “great hero” when he was a law student working at The Nation Review, Radio 2SM and the Nine Network.

On trade, @TurnbullMalcolm says ‘The United States needs to set out a very clear statement of what it wants to achieve and the basis for it.’

‘I don’t think anyone wins from trade wars.’

He says #Britain is looking seriously at joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

— Michelle Nichols (@michellenichols) September 20, 2018

“I first met Evans at the Cambridge Union in 1975. He was one of the guest speakers and I spoke later from the floor in the debate,” Mr Turnbull said in 2014.

“A little after my speech I was handed a note on Sunday Times letterhead. ‘Come and see me in the Grays Inn Road if you want to be a journalist’, and it was signed by Harold Evans. A summons from God.

“When I met Evans, the next morning, he urged me to drop my legal studies and concentrate on journalism. He was very persuasive and he summed it up like this: ‘If you become a lawyer you will make much more money than you will as a journalist. But you will be bored out of your wits. You might become a judge — more boring still. Or, and at this point his voice dropped ominously, ‘worse still you could become a politician.’

“He didn’t need to elaborate on that dreaded prospect,” Mr Turnbull quipped.

A week after losing the prime ministership Mr Turnbull and his wife Lucy flew to New York, where they are staying in the luxury two-bedroom apartment overlooking Central Park which they bought for $3.275 million in 2012.

They have since been spotted returning from a trip to hipster organic health food chain Wholefoods, and attending the MET and the Toronto Film Festival.

Mr Turnbull made headlines last week when he tweeted that he had suggested to his successor Scott Morrison and others that “given the uncertainty” around leadership rival Peter Dutton’s eligibility to sit in parliament, “he should be referred to the High Court, as (former deputy prime minister) Barnaby (Joyce) was, to clarify the matter.”