Fare go for all as PM hails son’s taxi app

Ben Butler & Christine Lacy

The love our new PM, Malcolm Turnbull, holds in his heart for public transport is as famous as his love of “innovation” and Twitter — so isn’t it great to see him combine all three while keeping it in the family? While toiling in obscurity as mere comms minister, Turnbull tweeted his crush on Aussie taxi hailing app GoCatch, which is battling US giant Uber for a share of the local market. “You should download it!” Mal said in the 2013 tweet. Mal said a fellow Twit’s suggestion he was “getting paid by these different apps to advertise them” was “pretty offensive”, adding: “No. However the taxi apps like GoCatch are good examples of disruptive new productivity technology”. GoCatch thanked PM T for his support after he deposed Tony Abbott last month, Facebooking a snap of Mal and app boss Ned Moorfield at this year’s CEO Sleepout. Turnbull’s app-fection for GoCatch comes from the heart, but he also has a personal interest: son Alex is a shareholder in the company, alongside the likes of David Paradice and Paul Bassat’s Square Peg fund. Alex owns a modest 1.57 per cent of GoCatch.