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Hello Rupert, bye-bye Malcolm
Source: The New Daily – by Bruce Guthrie
News Corporation CEO Rupert Murdoch (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)
Anyone who doubts Rupert Murdoch’s role in the political chaos that has played out in recent days has never worked for him at a senior level.
Murdoch’s annual visits to Australia invariably trigger seismic events both in and outside News Corp, the company he’s presided over for decades.
So is it any surprise that Malcolm Turnbull has lost his job less than a fortnight after Murdoch arrived here? Of course it isn’t.
Murdoch flew in on August 10 and set about doing what he always does: he attended the annual News Awards, which fete the company’s best and brightest journalists, conducted one-on-ones with his editors and then signed off on the inevitable promotions, demotions and executions of the company’s most senior staff.
(I once endured all three on one of his visits – surviving a relatively benign one-on-one with Murdoch, accepting a News Award and then getting sacked, all in a matter of days.)
For good measure Murdoch also attended the 75th birthday of the Institute of Public Affairs on Monday night and was interviewed on stage with former Liberal PM, John Howard, by one of the media tycoon’s preferred columnists, Janet Albrechtsen.
Throughout all this he would have been forming a view that Turnbull’s time was up – in fact, he probably arrived with that view – and then imparted that message to his editors.
He wouldn’t have had to tell his columnists or his TV commentators because they arrived at that view months ago and have been preaching it ad nauseum. Foremost here have been Andrew Bolt, Miranda Devine and Peta Credlin.
They have been aided by an army of Sydney shock jocks, notably Alan Jones, Ray Hadley and Paul Murray.
In the end it took just 11 days after Murdoch’s arrival to bring about a party room spill. It played out less than 24 hours after that IPA appearance.
While much of Tuesday’s party room drama was driven by Tony Abbott and his ultra-conservative cohorts, there were plenty of willing executioners within News Corp, its various arms and Sydney’s blowhard broadcasters.
Turnbull alluded to these internal and external agents of regime change at his extraordinary press conference on Thursday afternoon in Canberra.
“A minority in the party room, supported by others outside the parliament, have sought to bully, intimidate others into making this change of leadership,” he said.
He avoided specifics, but it was clear who he was referring to.
Channel Nine political editor Chris Uhlmann had made the same point on Thursday morning, telling Today viewers hours before the Turnbull press conference that “everyone from the PM down has pointed out to me that they believe there has been a campaign waged against them”.
Uhlmann went on: “We are talking about The Australian, The Daily Telegraph, tabloid newspapers around the country, 2GB in Sydney led by Alan Jones and Ray Hadley, and Sky News in particular with its evening line-up, are waging a war against the prime minister of Australia.”
He’s right, of course.
Predictably, the News Corp backlash was swift, with various operatives condemning Uhlmann’s comments as “disgusting” and “outrageous”. They should get out more often.
Journalists traditionally tread a fine line in leadership contests, forced to sift through leaks, whispers and background conversations when reporting a fast-moving story. On this occasion though, too many appeared to cross it. And most of those work for News Corp or its entities.
Their willingness to insert themselves into the story was a long, long way from traditional journalism’s demands of objectivity, fairness, balance and a genuine search for truth. I fear it won’t be a one-off either.
The front pages of the company’s tabloids were also firmly against Turnbull, the Herald Sun branding him “Dead Mal Walking” and the Courier-Mail welcoming candidate Dutton with “The Pete Is On”.
The choir was pretty clearly singing from the same song sheet. This is not entirely unexpected. As many have observed on this and other continents, Rupert has form in this regard.
Time and again it’s been shown that he likes to meddle in the politics of the countries his outlets operate in. Just last month The Washington Post reported that he talks with US President Donald Trump every day.
This week’s events and Murdoch’s role in them were another reminder that recent law changes have created media monsters that even prime ministers have reason to fear.
Turnbull has now paid with his job because on some level he failed Murdoch and his minions. The simplest explanation is he was perceived as just too liberal.
The real beneficiary of all this is Bill Shorten. But he shouldn’t dwell on his good fortune for too long.
That’s because the treatment of Turnbull by News Corp inevitably throws up this question: If Murdoch and Co will go to such lengths to oust a Liberal leader, what will they do to keep Labor from power?
Bruce Guthrie is co-founder of The New Daily and a former editor-in-chief of News Corp’s Melbourne newspaper, the Herald Sun.
David Walter to appear in Cairns Magistrates Court Wednesday August 2
After spending one month in jail allegedly for contempt of court, Corporation-buster David Walter will attend a call-over to detail the charges against him and set down a trial date.
Mr Walter says the Magistrates Court has no authority and the case against him cannot continue.
Retired police prosecutor David Walter will attend a Mention in the Cairns magistrates Court on Wednesday. All freedom fighters are asked to attend
A senior Magistrate from Brisbane will preside at the mention.
After Mr Walter’s original hearing over his alleged bankruptcy he ended up in a scuffle with two large Court Protection Officers who threw the former Police prosecutor to the floor, handcuffing him and removing him from the courtroom.
Twenty witnesses seated in the public gallery swore statements immediately after the assault by the two officers, stating Mr Walter did not assault the two men.
One officer claimed he was assaulted and has filed serious assault charges against Mr Walter.
‘My’ Corporate Government led by CEO Annastacia Palaszczuk is in serious Constitutional jeopardy should Mr Walter get a proper hearing.
Australia already a republic says a reader
Letter to the Editor
On Monday May 22nd at Cairns Magistrates Court, the most important event since Federation will take place. Retired police officer Mr. David Walter will present his defense against an attempt to jail him from matters following on from a Court bankrupting him for refusal to pay moneys not owed by him to shires for rates in which he owns no land and costs awarded against him in a matter he was a non party to.
He has summonsed to the Court the following people. The Queensland Premier, Governor and Police commissioner. Mr. Malcolm Turnbull and the Governor General Peter Cosgrove. They are called as witnesses for the defense and as no one is above the law in Australia they must appear.
This culminates a 12 year campaign by Mr. Walter to see justice done for a number of his friends who had their property stolen by persons proported to have the lawful authority of the state of Queensland.
Mr Walter took this fight to State Courts, the Federal Court, the High Court and finally to the Privy Council and the International Criminal Court.
His case simply argues that the people have a contract with our Sovereign through the Constitution of 1901 through which she holds our rights, and secures title to property in a contract with we the people in Common Law.
We have no such lawful agreement with the Members of political parties, calling themselves Governments “of Australia, not of the Commonwealth” and registered in the USA. as Private Corporations and political subdivisions of the American Government. They never paid the Crown for her lands nor paid the people for their titles, they just simply stole them. They removed our titles from the Crown and placed them in their private Corporations registered in Washington D.C. where they have borrowed against these stolen assets.
From Whitlam until now, no so called law has had Royal Asset. We the people were never asked at referenda to give consent to any of their actions. They have contracts only with members of other political parties not we the people. The best word to describe their actions since Whitlam is treason.
No lawful contract exists between the people and these private corporations calling themselves “Australian Governments”, registered in the USA and using a currency deemed by the High Court in 1988 to be not lawfully “of the Commonwealth of Australia” to pay Governors, Judges and police to tax, fine, regulate, license and imprison Subjects of the Crown.
Even Peter Beattie in his Annotated Constitution of 2001 declared that he couldn’t remove the previous Constitution or remove the Common Law rights of the people and “that to do so, without a referenda of the people it would be dangerous to do so”. Yet these private corporations calling themselves Governments have done exactly that. Come and see it all fall.
John Keeler
Brisbane
Humpty Dumpty will have a great fall If the High Court files this application to stop bankruptcy
When will the first shots be fired by the oppressed citizenry ?
Signed complete forms 23; 18 and Exhibit DJW 1 to DJW – 11.compressed.pdf
A former police prosecutor has attempted to file an application in the High Court of Australia against his bankruptcy proceeding initiated by Mackay City Council. If filed it will bring down the entire bogus system of corporate government operating in Australia.
So far the Registrar, Deborah Carslund, has refused to file it, knowing the consequences would collapse the unlawful corporate system.
David Walter, of Herberton, (pictured)who is a passionate Constitutional analyst, gave his evidence by phone to a Federal Court Circuit hearing in Brisbane on February 14.
The presiding Judge, Angelo Vasta, said in spite of the pleadings by Mr Walter detailing the unlawful system of government, he was bound by the Bankruptcy Act 1966, that coincidentally was the year of the introduction of decimal currency, that Mr Walter contends has no value anywhere in the world.
Judge Vasta upheld the order of the lower court to bankrupt Mr Walter, in spite of his admiration for the judge’s concordance with his argument.
He told Judge Vasta by telephone hook-up that in light of careful manipulations and entrapment by counsel Mr Houghton, instructed by King and Co for the Mackay City Council to entice him into the court, he could not enter a courtroom in Queensland or he faced two year’s incarceration as a result.
Judge Vasta did not know about the defendant’s dilemma, brought about by the former tenacious prosecutor’s appearances in Queensland courtrooms over a decade helping land owners who had been crushed by former Premier Beattie’s unlawful Vegetation Management Act and other corporate policies.
The Bar Association with its normal vindictive attitude towards any person who steps outside of the precious but unlawful legal boundaries jealously protected by the State’s legal system, was able to get an order from one of its compliant Justices to have David Walter banned from court rooms or face two years jail.
Such is the threat posed by David Walter to the cosy relationship between the political party government of the day, all levels of the judiciary, the banks, the Bar Association and the Law Society.
Mr Walter has asked readers to send this article to every email address they have in their address book.
Cairns News 