Rupert Murdoch mourns Abbott
Getty
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has mourned the loss of his favoured candidate for Australia’s top job, but that did not stop him from giving advice to his successor.
“Sad to see such a decent man as Abbott toppled,” he wrote on Twitter shortly after Malcolm Turnbull overthrew Tony Abbott in a partyroom ballot on Monday night.
His guidance to the incoming PM was the same he reportedly gave to Mr Abbott before he was deposed.
• Malcolm Turnbull elected Liberal leader
• Why Tony Abbott must go quietly into the night
• Malcolm, welcome to the job. Here’s your to-do list
• Turnbull’s challenge—not scaring off his own party
“Now Turnbull needs a November election before Labor sacks Shorten.”
The response to Mr Murdoch’s tweet was overwhelmingly negative, with one user saying he must be “getting tired of backing losers”.
Earlier in September, it was rumoured that Mr Abbott consulted Murdoch on the prospect of an early election to stave off the leadership crisis.
After this supposed meeting, Murdoch took to Twitter to denounce the current political climate as “ungovernable”, which some interpreted as support for a double dissolution.
“Country almost ungovernable with any Senate majority impossible for either side to execute,” he wrote on Twitter.
“Govt must push on with reforms for sake of all sides or hold snap poll.”
The media owner repeated his support for the then-embattled leader, describing him as “the best alternative” despite “some blind spots”.
Murdoch had acknowledged the outgoing PM’s mistakes. When Mr Abbott knighted Prince Philip, he labelled it “a joke and embarrassment”.
“Time to scrap all honours everywhere, including UK,” he wrote at the time.
An academic recently noted that Mr Murdoch’s posts on Twitter were often reflected in the editorial positions of his many newspapers and TV networks.
Murdoch has approximately 600,000 followers on Twitter, where he regularly shares his views.
-with AAP.