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Former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has launched a scathing attack on Rupert Murdoch and his global media empire, suggesting their local media titles should be treated “like the drunk that you see late on a Saturday night, raving and screaming and raging at the moon”.
Turnbull is a long-time Murdoch critic, but dialled up his rhetoric in a recording obtained by this masthead that also takes aim at the ABC’s and the Labor and Liberal parties’ approach to handling News Corp outlets including Sky News, The Australian, Daily Telegraph and Herald Sun.
Speaking at the launch event for a new book on the media empire Murdoch has built over seven decades, the former politician critiqued the 95-year-old’s legacy and urged the audience to “evict” him from living “rent-free” in the heads of the nation’s politics, media and public life.
“Why any Labor government ever takes any notice of what Murdoch says is utterly beyond me,” Turnbull says in the recording from June 30, in which he argues that swing voters do not consume News Corp media.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has shown a softer approach to Murdoch and News Corp compared with that of his predecessors. He is a regular attendee at News Corp events, including Lachlan Murdoch’s private Christmas party in 2024, Sky News’ studio launch earlier this year and The Australian’s 60th birthday event two years ago. News Corp has claimed that one of the Labor government’s flagship policies, the under-16 social media ban, was sparked by one of its campaigns.
Turnbull called for Australian institutions to ignore News Corp.
“In a sense, we’ve got to start treating the rantings on the Murdoch media, particularly Sky News after dark, the way you treat the drunk that you see late on a Saturday night, raving and screaming and raging at the moon outside a pub,” Turnbull said. “You know? Oh, OK, right, just carefully step by them, hopefully he doesn’t vomit on you or something, and that’s basically – you’ve got to basically ignore it.”
His comments were delivered at a private launch event for Getting Murdoched, a book written by Andrew Dodd and Matthew Ricketson, two academics and former News Corp journalists who accuse the company of intimidating critics. A News Corp spokesman declined to comment.
Turnbull also singled out Murdoch’s personal legacy. “He was the single most influential voice in promoting Britain’s withdrawal from Europe, Brexit. What a great thing that turned out to be!” Turnbull said.
“And then, of course, we have Donald Trump. So Trump, Brexit and climate denial – those are the great achievements. That’s what all of this power has been achieved to do, and intimidating people along the way.”
As prime minister from 2015 to 2018, Turnbull has a personal history with Murdoch and News Corp, and has become a prominent critic of the company since leaving politics. He has claimed he learnt Murdoch was trying to oust him in 2018 from billionaire mining and media magnate Kerry Stokes, an allegation Turnbull once again repeated in the speech.
After Kevin Rudd was appointed Australian ambassador to the United States in 2023, Turnbull took over as the lead figure in the push for a royal commission into the Murdoch media empire, which received more than 500,000 signatures.
During an interview with Sky News Australia in 2024, Murdoch called Turnbull “nuts” and “paranoid” in response.
“He didn’t like the fact that we supported Tony Abbott versus him. That’s all,” Murdoch said in the interview with his television network’s boss, Paul Whittaker.
Turnbull said that News Corp had created its own “polarised echo chamber” within Australian politics, which it was now using to “suck the Liberal Party down, destroying it in the process”.
When approached for a response to Turnbull’s address to the book launch, a spokesperson for Murdoch declined to comment.
Since leaving parliament, Turnbull has repeatedly broken with the Liberal Party, including describing Opposition Leader Angus Taylor as the “best qualified idiot” many people had met.
In the recording, Turnbull said he had urged the ABC to ignore News Corp during his time as communications minister between 2013 and 2015, but said the fact it still paid attention to The Australian was “crazy”.
“Hello? They are the opposition. They hate you. They want to kill you,” he said. “Does one football team take advice from their opponents? No, they’re the enemy.”
News Corp titles regularly criticise the public broadcaster. In May, ABC chair Kim Williams said articles in The Australian about the ABC’s coverage of Israel were “divisive” and “inflammatory”. Williams, a former News Corp Australia chief executive, has taken a firmer tone towards News Corp compared with his predecessor, Ita Buttrose.
Turnbull, who declined to add to his remarks when contacted by this masthead, urged the audience to evict Murdoch and his empire from living “rent-free in our heads”.
“They’re narrow casting to an angry minority, and their goals are simply the accumulation and exercise of power, the more unbridled and unchecked, the better,” he said at the book launch.
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