Independent Australia
03 Jun 2025

In trying to Trumpify Australia, News Corp may have sealed the fate of its political allies and helped Labor win instead, writes DrVictoria Fielding.

AS THE IMPLICATIONS of Labors historic Election victory continue to reverberate throughout the country, there have beensuggestions madethat the result demonstrates that News Corpno longerhas a powerful influence on Australian democracy.

I believe News Corp did have a powerful influence on the Election result, just not the way it wanted. This is because News Corp helped create a Trumpist-Liberal and National movement, engraining a hard-right, toxic way of doing politics, a movement which was thoroughly rejected by the Australian public. That is to say, News Corp inadvertently helped Labor win.

One of the reasonspeople arguethat News Corp no longer has the influence it once did is because Australias media landscape is changing, just as it is everywhere else around the globe. The argument goes that younger demographics in particular are turning off mainstream media and instead get their news from social media, includingpowerful influencers, some of whom use journalistic styles but present news in a much more social-friendly way.

This argument ignores the influence that mainstream outlets like News Corp have on the media ecosystem, an ecosystem which encompasses both competitor mainstream outlets including the ABC and social media voices who amplify and reinforce what is being talked about in legacy media. News Corp not only influences the agendas of their mainstream media competitors, but also the downstream social media conversation.

The decline of the Coalition of Murdoch-led media and rise of the young

The Coalition's spectacular Election failure demonstrates the waning power of the News Corp-led media cartel.

The fact is, most social media influencers and their audiences are not journalists who are presenting facts, but are commentators who are sharing opinions. Those opinions are very often about issues and events written about in mainstream news and thus mainstream media continues to legitimise ideas and to set the agenda elsewhere in the ecosystem.

Indeed, the discussion of the rise and popularity of social media influencers tends to forget that News Corp are the original media influencers and continue to be, including being highly influential on the right-wing media ecosystem, as well as right-wing politics.

Through this lens, News Corps direct influence on media discourse is clear. News Corp owns the majority share of newspaper readership, as well as broadcast outletSky News. These outlets not only have a powerful presence in traditional media but also a large presence on digital and social media platforms, such as Sky News YouTube channel, which receives millions of views.

On top of this influence, people who get their news from social media are still consuming mainstream media agendas and talking points, often without recognising where they originated.

This influence is exemplified byPeter Shamshiri, who said of hugely popular pro-Trump podcasterJoe Rogan:

The right-wing propaganda pumped out non-stop by News Corp, in concert with the Liberal Party and cashed-up campaign outfitAdvance, is a campaign of influence across the media ecosystem. That propaganda, of course, influences the Australian electorate.

Australia's news media landscape may have changed forever

The influence of the malicious mainstream newsrooms should be reassessed following Labors stunning landslide.

This influence is particularly obvious amongst the Liberal National base. In a surprisinglycandid moment, former Liberal strategistTony Barrydescribed how Liberal branch members have been captured by the Sky After Dark propaganda machine by describing how a Liberal MP told him he has to watch Sky News to find out what his branch members are being told.

This insight suggests News Corp is directly influencing the culture and political priorities of Liberal Party members.

Crucially, where News Corp blends news and commentary in a style more reminiscent of right-wing propaganda than traditional journalism, there is nothing even close to this power on the left of the media spectrum. The News Corp right-wing megaphone thus distorts the Australian media landscape, tilting it rightward so that there is no level playing field in the public sphere.

Left-wing parties and politicians not only must compete with their political rivals, but also with their media ones. Australia has an inherently unequal media ecosystem, which means we have an inherently unequal democracy.

Aside from this powerful direct media influence, News Corp also has an equally powerful indirect influence on Australian politics by being entwined politically in the Liberal and National Parties. This close and often toxic relationship was explored byThe Saturday Papers Jason Koutsoukis, who described how former Liberal Prime MinisterTony Abbottand his former chief of staff, now News Corp commentator,Peta Credlin, continue to be the behind-the-scenes king-makers in the Liberal Party.

Crucially, Abbott and Credlins influence has been wielded to push the Liberal Party to the Right to make it as Trumpist as possible with News Corps media power being used to intimidate, threaten and discipline anyone who doesnt toe the Abbott-Credlin hard-right line.

This capture by hard-right players demonstrates how News Corp uses the same culture-warring, fear-mongering methods as it uses on the Australian public, to capture the Right wing of Australian politics.

Manipulated media: The weapon of the Right

The re-election of Donald Trump is proof thatthe Right's most powerful weapon ismedia manipulation, ensuringthe public sphere is not engaged in rational debate.

All this means that it would be incredibly nave to think News Corp has no influence on Australian politics. News Corp staff are not outsiders, platformed on old technology, talking to themselves. They are at the centre of right-wing politics, media and culture, influencing what is debated, the policies advanced or attacked, and the public discourse that influences voting behaviour.

So, what happened in the May Election? I believe that News Corp contributed powerfully to Trumpifying the Liberal-Nationals and this hard-right turn spectacularly backfired. As soon as Trump was exposed as a dangerous chaos-maker, News Corpand Advancetogether undermined former Opposition LeaderPeter Duttons campaign by making him look as Trump-like as possible.

The Liberals are not a victim of News Corp, but a co-conspirator. There was perhaps a moment after former PMScott Morrisonlost the 2022 Election that some Liberals thought the hard-right playbook might not be the best way forward. But these doubters were mostly from the cohort of moderates who lost their seats to Teals.

With hard-right Dutton in charge and the success of the culture-warring, fear-mongeringNews Corp-Advance-Liberal playbookin the 2023 Voice Referendum, it was full steam ahead for the Liberal Party in waging a Trumpist assault on Australia in 2025.

Andrew Hastie on ABCsFour Cornerssaid the quiet bit out loud when he admitted the Liberals attacked the Voice through the No campaign in the hope this would help them beat Labor in the 2025 Election. Liberal and National MPs still seem shell-shocked that this sadistic political strategy did not work.

As Ivealready writtenin the election washup, it is my view that had the Election occurred before the full horrors of the Trump second term were known, Dutton would likely have won, despite the Liberals woeful campaign and despite Duttons personal unpopularity. Indeed, on 16 February, the ABCsheadlinescreamed: Peter Dutton most likely to be next prime minister, according to YouGov poll.

AsThe Guardians poll tracker showed, this polling ended up being Duttons high point, with his vote crashing nationwide from then on. There is absolutely an argument that the more the public got to know Dutton, the more it disliked him. But, I do not think you can underestimate how much the public got to know Dutton through his equivalence with Trump and how this was ultimately his undoing.

(Source:The Guardian)

Elections are always won or lost on the vibe and News Corp has always played a huge part in setting the tone of this vibe. Just as News Corp has traditionally influenced Liberals election wins where fear campaigns against Labor worked this time the culture-warring and fear campaigns created mass fear about the dangers of putting cruel, fear-mongering, culture-warring Trumpists in charge.

All this means that Duttons loss was also News Corps. I found it particularly gratifying to read inThe Saturday Paperthat due to Liberal pollsters over-estimates of Dutton and the Liberals popularity, all the way up until days before the Election, Dutton thought the Liberals were still in with a chance of forcing Labor into minority government. He also did not expect the electoral tidal wave of the 7.7 per cent swing in Dickson, which unseated him.

Dutton had no doubt been tuned into Sky News hackSharri Marksons exclusive insider polling a week out from the Election,which claimedthe Liberals were in poll position.

So, what is next for the Liberal-News Corp-Advance pincer movement? New Opposition LeaderSussan Leyclaims to want to modernise the Liberal Party. Yet, when asked byThe Saturday Papers Karen Barlow if this means an end to culture wars and the Trumpish fights over Welcome to Country ceremonies, Australia Day and the school curriculum, Ley was described as noncommittal.

Ley responded:

They certainly will be while News Corp still pulls the Liberal Partys political strings.

If you would like to hear more about this topic, I am hosting a free online event as part of the Australian Festival of Democracy and Human Rights titled Hidden Influences on Media and Democracy on Thursday 5 June, 2:00 PM 3:30 PM AEST. Details and registration information areavailable here.

DrVictoria Fieldingis an Independent Australia columnist. You can follow her on Threads@drvicfieldingor Bluesky@drvicfielding.bsky.social.

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