By all accounts,Stokes did not agitate for any leadership change and counselled against making Dutton the prime minister. But Stokes was a realist. In one phone conversation with Turnbull,he told the-then prime minister that everyone was against him – including Murdoch. Not least,he pointed out that 35 Liberals had just voted for a change of leader.
Several people aware of these conversations say Stokes relayed a comment from Murdoch:“Malcolm has got to go.” Those five words are the subject of dispute because the exact quote can only be known to Stokes and Murdoch. Even so,the overall message was not in doubt.
Of course Murdoch believed Turnbull’s time was up. Who on earth would be shocked by this? This was a time of relentless attack on Turnbull from parts of News Corp – not least from the commentators on Sky News when the channel’s sharp daytime journalism gave way to endless night-time bluster.
Malcolm Turnbull waves goodbye at the end of his final press conference as prime minister,with granddaughter Alice and grandson Jack.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
This was just one factor in the events surrounding the leadership spill. The media was absolutely part of the story. The view expressed by Murdoch,conveyed to Turnbull,was news worth reporting this week by Joe Aston ofThe Australian Financial Review and Andrew Probyn of the ABC.
The furious reaction from News Corp to these reports is only worth a smile. The company that claimed to have decided a British election in 1992 – “It’sThe Sun Wot Won It” – now takes offence at the idea it wielded its influence in Australia in 2018.
The attempt at a rebuttal inThe Australian on Thursday was laughable. “Stokes rejects ABC:I didn’t plot to oust PM,” said the headline. Probyn never claimed such a plot. He reported the opposite:that Stokes had a high regard for Turnbull.
Loading
There are three key points to make about the argument over the media’s role in the spill,starting with the fact that News Corp is not the clone army its critics make out. It has plenty of shrewd,fair journalists. Whatever Murdoch thought and said,the company’s best commentators wrote as they saw fit. (I write this as a former political correspondent atThe Australian.)
A second point is that News Corp was not alone in reporting the failures of the government and the threat to its leader. Fairfax Media and others reported this as well – including a report that Dutton was “set to strike” on the Monday of the final week.
The third point is that Turnbull was fair game for critical media coverage. He not only suffered from the schemes of his rivals but from his own political blunders as well.
Even so,Turnbull had to contend with media commentators who sought to wield political influence – to become participants in the challenge. Is it such an outrage to look at the role they played? Like the plotters for Dutton who do not like being called plotters,or the bullies who want to avoid being named as bullies,the media players hate being written about as players.
Loading
They can look a bit like snowflakes at times.
The agitation for change by Peta Credlin,Andrew Bolt and Paul Murray at News is part of the story of the spill. So is the hectoring from Alan Jones and Ray Hadley at 2GB,controlled by Fairfax. So is the influence of Murdoch.
None of this means the media dictated the outcome,only that it played a part. The splintering of the Liberal Party base has been apparent for years. The crisis within the party was fundamental to the failure of Abbott during 2015,just as it was a factor in the failure of Turnbull three years later.
Media commentators reflected and magnified the Liberal divisions all at once. The conservative voices in the media got the spill they wanted,if not the prime minister they preferred.
What is astounding is the way these voices outside Parliament wielded such influence. Liberal MPs became convinced these experts spoke for'the base'and could not be ignored. Unsure about where to stand,some MPs outsourced their decisions to the media experts. The next election will show whether the experts in a TV studio in North Ryde or a radio studio in Pyrmont really know where the base can be found.
The part played by Murdoch in this leadership spill will be disputed for years.
But it is no conspiracy to report on the way Turnbull dealt with the nation’s most powerful media mogul at the very moment his government came crashing down.
David Crowe isChief Political Correspondent ofThe Age andThe Sydney Morning Herald.