Rudd savages Abbott and Murdoch for wrecking Australian democracy
Former prime minister Kevin Rudd has launched incendiary attack on Tony Abbott and News Corp executive chairman Rupert Murdoch, who he claims have undermined Australian democracy and contributed to the "orgy of political violence" that led to Malcolm Turnbull's ousting.
In an opinion piece written for Fairfax Media on Monday, Mr Rudd writes that Australian politics has become toxic and unstable due to an obsession with opinion polls and the juvenile culture of a "Young-Labor/Young-Liberal generation of "child politicians".
But Mr Rudd, who was prime minister from December 2007 to June 2010 and again from June to September 2013, argues that the most destructive forces upon damaging politics have been the "unique negativity, toxicity and hatred" of Tony Abbott as well as Mr Murdoch, who he describes as the "greatest cancer on the Australian democracy".
Mr Rudd's prime ministership coincided with the beginning of a period of unprecedented political bloodletting on both sides of politics. Australia has changed PM seven times since the Howard government. The Liberal party's decision to dump Mr Turnbull last week has sparked a debate over the role of conservative media in politics.
"[Mr] Abbott has never cared about policy," Mr Rudd writes. "He has only cared about politics and winning at any cost. I cannot remember a single positive policy initiative that Abbott has championed and then implemented.
"As a result, unconstrained by policy, the entire energies of this giant wrecking ball of Australian politics has been focussed on destroying his opponents."
Mr Rudd courted News Corp editors during his time in politics and was the godfather to the son of Chris Mitchell, former editor-in-chief of The Australian. However, he is particularly critical about News Corp's journalism in the op ed piece.
According to Mr Rudd, Mr Murdoch does not run a news organisation, but instead, "operates as a political party, acting in pursuit of clearly defined commercial interests, in addition to his far-right ideological world view".
In the UK, Murdoch made Brexit possible because of the position taken by his papers. In the US, Murdoch's Fox News is the political echo chamber of the far-right which enabled the Tea Party and then the Trump party to stage a hostile take-over of the Republican Party. In Australia, as in America, Murdoch has campaigned for decades in support of tax cuts for the wealthy, killing action on climate change and destroying anything approximating multiculturalism.
A spokeswoman for News Corp declined to comment.
Many of Mr Turnbull's supporters in parliament believe last week's coup was actively supported by News Corp's newspapers and some presenters on its pay-TV station, Sky News, as well as by Ray Hadley and Alan Jones, employed by 2GB, which is owned by Fairfax Media, publisher of this website.
Senior Liberal sources sympathetic to Mr Turnbull have told Fairfax Media that they believe some commentators overstepped democratic conventions during the coup and became active players, going so far as to lobby MPs on behalf of the insurgents and maintain momentum for Peter Dutton's forces after the first spill failed.
Channel Nine's chief political correspondent Chris Uhlmann last week said Jones, Hadley, and "Sky after dark" presenters such as Peta Credlin, a former chief-of-staff to Mr Abbott, were "players in the game" to depose Mr Turnbull.
Senior Liberals close to Mr Turnbull believe Ms Credlin, Mr Jones, and Ross Cameron, a former Liberal MP and current Sky News host, contacted some MPs directly to criticise Mr Turnbull.
The sources in politics and media who spoke to Fairfax Media for this story would not be named because they wanted to protect professional relationships.
Ms Credlin denies that she had any involvement whatsoever and said that is enjoying her career outside politics. "I am not in this fight," she said. Mr Cameron declined to comment and Mr Jones did not respond to a call.
The day before he was forced from office Mr Turnbull himself made it clear he believed that actors outside parliament contributed to his downfall.
"The reality is that a minority in the party room, supported by others outside the parliament, have sought to bully, intimidate others into making this change of leadership that they're seeking," he said.
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Several sources close to Mr Turnbull have confirmed his comments were directed at the 2GB hosts, and News Corp.
Senior Liberals have told Fairfax Media that they believe News Corp's coverage of Mr Turnbull's government has been biased since he took office, but that it turned particularly savage the week before last when Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch arrived in Australia. Some suspect that News Corp editors were acting at the instructions of the Murdochs.
Several current and former senior News Corp employs have cast doubt on this, saying that the Murdochs typically do not instruct people on what editorial line to take. But more than one added that it is not uncommon for political coverage in News Corp outlets to become more muscular when the Murdochs are in town.
Political and News Corp sources have also told Fairfax Media that they believe that News Corp co-chairman Lachlan Murdoch has a particular dislike for Mr Turnbull. They also believe that over the years Lachlan Murdoch has become even more conservative in his world view than his father, and far more conservative than Mr Turnbull. They also confirmed that Lachlan is known to be close to both Ms Credlin and Mr Abbott.
Rupert Murdoch has established an international reputation for using his media clout in politics. While his tabloids in the United Kingdom have backed Labour governments in the past, more recently they have been consistent in their support of conservatives.
In the United States Mr Murdoch is known to have opposed Donald Trump during the primaries, only to become an avid supporter once it was clear he would become the Republican candidate. Lachlan Murdoch is known to be an enthusiastic supporter of Mr Trump and his performance in office.
Rupert's relationship with Mr Trump was tested when the biographer Michael Wolff reported that after a phone call with the president Murdoch referred to Trump as a "f---ing idiot" but more recently it has been reported that the two speak weekly and sometimes even daily. Recently the Fox News evening host Sean Hannity had Mr Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani filling in for him as host of his radio program.
Mr Trump is known to be a fan News Corp's Fox News channel, often tweeting about the views of his favourite morning and evening hosts as he watches their programs.
Many commentators have observed that in Australia the commentary of Sky News evening hosts veered sharply to the right after News Corp took it over in what appears to be an effort to establish a Fox-like presence in Australia. Some observers believe the political commentary in The Australian newspaper over the past decade under Mr Mitchell veered to the right.
A former senior News Corp staffer says the move not only reflected the views of the Murdochs and gave them political clout, but made good business sense during a period of instability in the media. Viewers and readers who have their world views amplified and reflected back to them tended to be intensely loyal, he said.
But one senior Liberal said that News Corp's championing of the far right of the party had served the interests of Labor and threatened to destroy the Liberal Party entirely.
Similar observations have been made about News Corp's impact on the Republican Party in America.
As far back as 2010 David Frum, a well-known neo-conservative who worked in George W Bush's White House observed that Fox News had become more powerful than the Republican Party itself.
"Republicans originally thought that Fox worked for us and now we're discovering we work for Fox. And this balance here has been completely reversed. The thing that sustains a strong Fox network is the thing that undermines a strong Republican party," he said in an interview.
posted by Satish Sharma at
20:42
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