As a successful businesswoman in her own right, Lucy Turnbull is no mere sidekick to her PM husband. And even with a federal election looming, she's not considering any "ifs", writes MEGAN MILLER
LUCY Turnbull believes her role as Australia's "First Lady" is first and foremost as a companion to her Prime Minister husband, Malcolm.
But don't take that as some sort of 1950s-style admission of a wife content to be the woman behind the man.
"It's not an official position or title that comes with a job description so I think the role â€¦ is to do what you usually do but also be a companion to somebody who happens to be the Prime Minister," she says. 
"Whatever I do as a private citizen I've continued to do." Private citizen Lucy Turnbull is no mere adornment.
She's an accomplished businesswoman, lawyer, board member, philanthropist and author, and a former lord mayor of Sydney (the first woman to hold the job, in 2003-04).
In 2011, she became an Officer of the Order of Australia for service to the community, local government and business.
She's busy - her appointments and places to be are down to 10-minute intervals; and efficient, even down to her warm, yet clipped, speech, heavily peppered with "ya" whenever she agrees.
Politics was in her blood long before it was in the PM's.
Her great-grandfather, Sir Thomas Hughes, was Sydney's first lord mayor, and her QC father, Tom Hughes, was federal attorney-general from 1969-1971.
Politics might be familiar territory but it's been an eye-opening ride stepping into life as the PM's wife since that   September night in Canberra last year when Malcolm deposed Tony Abbott to take the top job.
As the PM's honeymoon period has morphed into a full-blown election campaign (which will culminate on   July 2 when the nation heads to the polls), Lucy admits she'll never get used to the inevitable slings and arrows from the media and the other side of politics.
"You have to have broad shoulders in political life," she says. "That said, it's never fun or pleasant to observe." She knows people "attach a great deal" to the role of the PM's spouse or partner but away from the official functions, hosting of dignitaries and media attention, she sees supporting Malcolm and "providing a life as normal as possible" as paramount.
"We've been married for 36 years and at various times supported each other more intensely than other times, but it's always part of any marriage," she says.
The couple has long stressed the importance of spending quality time together away from the demands of their careers, which has seen them work side by side on various ventures over the years in business, banking and law, including the famous Spycatcher book case in the 1980s, in which Malcolm was the young, high-flying lawyer fronting the trial and Lucy was among the legal researchers.
"Both our respective sets of parents had been divorced and we were determined not to be," Malcolm told the Australian Women's Weekly in 2014.
"Despite very busy, often distracting lives, we have always tried to make lots of time to be with each other.
"I think this has been a very wise move - it is so easy between the demands of children and career to lose any time for each other, to lose the space in which the romance that brought you together in the first place can continue to thrive." Lucy agrees that the secret to a successful marriage is to "spend time with each other, always enjoy each other's company and keep communicating".
She adds that "normal stuff" such as watching TV and hanging out at home (the Turnbulls famously reside in Sydney's Point Piper in a waterfront mansion believed to be worth about $50 million) are good ways to relax and reconnect.
"And Malcolm loves kayaking and I do, too, but I'm more particular about the weather than he is," she says with a laugh. "It can't be windy, it can't be cold, but kayaking in Sydney is always a fun thing to do." The couple is also very partial to long walks and talks together (how very West Wing).
So, have they discussed what life might be like if the Coalition were to lose the federal election? It's a firm "no" from Lucy.
It hasn't entered conservation? "No." Not talking about it or don't want to?
"In a situation like an election, you just take one day at a time and put one foot in front of the other and get on with life," she says. Spoken like a true politician.
LUCY Turnbull's average day starts about 5.30am with 30 to 60 minutes of exercise such as walking, yoga or a barre class. Then it's on to work in Sydney or Parramatta in the city's west and in and out of meetings before typically landing home by 8pm.
She's in Parramatta, where the new Greater Sydney Commission is based. In   December, she was appointed chief commissioner of the metropolitan planning body, which has significant powers to steer the future direction of the city by taking control of planning decisions from its 41 local councils.
With a longstanding interest in cities and planning, Lucy, 58, calls herself an "urbanist" and in 1999 wrote Sydney: Biography of a City.
During high school she wanted to be a diplomat - "I've always had a great interest in cities and in other parts of the world" - but instead followed her father's footsteps into law.
While she lives and works in the harbour city, she insists there's room in her heart for Melbourne.
"Absolutely," she says with gusto. "We have several of the great cities of the world in Australia.
"I love Melbourne. It's fantastically walkable and very liveable. I love the wide streets and the laneways.
"I also love walking along the river. I'm not doing much running lately because I've done my ankle but I love walking and running around the river there. It's fantastic. Oh, and I love the NGV." Lucy, who has an MBA from the University of NSW, is chairwoman of Prima BioMed Limited, an ASX-listed biomedical company working on drugs to combat ovarian cancer.
She also owns about 1 per cent - worth about $915,000 - of the company. (Both her Prima role and Greater Sydney Commission appointment have survived conflict-of-interest reviews since Malcolm became PM.) She's a board member of the Grattan Institute and is chief patron of the National Portrait Gallery, a role traditionally held by the partner of the serving PM.
Many and varied past posts also include director of ferry operator Sealink and the German-Australian Chamber of Commerce, chairing the Committee for Sydney, as well as technology companies WebCentral and Melbourne IT.
Her latest role as an ambassador for Our Watch, the national organisation tackling violence against women and children, has her throwing considerable clout behind a "very pressing" issue.
"It has been for a long time but the attention now given to it is very good, obviously intensified when Rosie Batty was made Australian of the Year," she says.
"That was a very special moment and now there are a lot of people who are bringing it to light and talking about terrible instances of violence in their own lives.
"There's a lot more societal focus on the factors that lead to violence - disrespecting women, gender inequality or a lack of regard combined with difficult mental conditions of perpetrators, so we need to watch out for signs of it and make sure our children never date or choose to hang around with people who don't respect them; their boyfriends, girlfriends or life partners.
"We've got to make sure we keep a lot of focus and attention on the problem and really make sure it's much more greatly marginalised than it is today.
"It's a constant battle and one we can't think has been resolved. "It's great the Government's investing so much money into awareness and communication about the problem and there's greater attention to frontline services." She feels comfortable in the spotlight but doesn't seek it and has previously admitted to presenting as an extrovert but being shyer than she looks.
"When I'm in the spotlight, I'm either representing something or doing something that I'm committed to," she says. "I don't want to be in the spotlight for its own sake.
"I'm not hungry for it or out there seeking exposure and publicity. I'm not tipping off the paparazzi (laughs) - and if I have it's been completely by accident." The Turnbulls have long been one of Australia's power couples, amassing an estimated combined wealth of $200 million.
They met when Lucy was helping her father at his law chambers during the summer holidays and Malcolm was assigned to write a profile piece for The Bulletin on the prominent barrister and QC.
She was 19, he was 23. Her first impression of her future husband was "very handsome, dashing and clever".
They married two years later in 1980 and have two children, son Alex, 33, and daughter Daisy, 31.
The couple had wanted a larger family but Lucy suffered two miscarriages in her mid-30s that led them to stop trying.
She says she and Malcolm, 61, presented a "united front" when it came to parenting "if the children tried to pick one of us off to try and get something they wanted. The old divide and conquer doesn't work with us." She treasures her two grandchildren, Jack and Isla, and looks forward to welcoming her third, with Daisy expecting her second child in   September.
Despite her legion of official engagements, Lucy doesn't have a stylist and prefers to dress herself from favoured designers such as Carl Kapp, Carla Zampatti and Scanlan Theodore.
Is it unfair that female fashion is scrutinised and it's noted whether your earrings match your shoes?
"It probably is," she says, "but I just don't read about it too much. I'm not going to worry or let it get me down."
LUCY'S TOP 5 Coffee: Skinny flat white.
Binge watching: Unfortunately, nothing at the moment due to time. I have caught a few Janet King episodes. On holidays I love to binge-watch a series. I loved Narcos.
Hangover cure: Exercise.
Tattoos: Definitely not.Favourite beauty product: Anything that works. Dermalogica moisturisers are good.