A listener production.
In this episode of The Briefing, a man who is becoming one of the most powerful Australians in the world, a man we don't really know that much about Lachlan Murdoch.
He is incredibly private. He has done a remarkable job, given he's grown up in the spotlight his entire life of keeping his views to himself.
The Murdoch family are the owners of the huge global media empire News Corp, built by Lachlan's father Rupert, who is now 92 years old and recently announced that he was stepping down. And 52 year old Lachlan, his eldest son, will be stepping up as chairman of News Corp.
New line of succession at Fox News Rupert Murdoch announcing he will be stepping down as chairman of Fox and News Corporation.
Now Lachlan is in the driver's seat and he has come out on top.
The 92 year old will hand over the reins to his son Lachlan Murdoch.
So what is Lachlan Murdoch really like? Is he is right wing as his father. And we'll also talk about the succession style plot twist that could happen once Rupert passes away. That is our briefing. First, here are today's big headlines.
Hey, Tom. Hello, everyone. While Federal Parliament has passed the government's emergency laws to strengthen visa conditions for a group of people deemed high risk after their release from immigration detention.
We are in a rush. I would like to get this through the Parliament.
Yes, they were in a rush. Home Affairs Claire O'Neill in Parliament yesterday, former immigration detainees who breached these new laws restricting their movements will face a mandatory one year jail sentence. So this comes after more than 80 detainees were released after a recent High Court ruling that indefinite immigration detention is illegal for anyone with no real prospect of being deported. What a tense week for the government, Tom.
Yeah, this all blew up very quickly for the government. This High Court decision seemingly caught them on the hop they weren't prepared for, I guess, what to do with these people who'd been released, particularly the more potentially dangerous members of that cohort and the opposition have really seized on it as a community safety issue. So they've had to push through this legislation very quickly. It's no exaggeration to say they rushed it through. Claire O'Neill just admitted
it herself. So part of it will be that they'll have a curfew between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., where an electronic monitoring device, they'll have to report to federal authorities quite frequently, notify the department if they'd go into state, stateless, the memberships of organisations, and they can't work with children. And if they don't comply, they could be put behind bars for up to five years. Yeah.
I don't think this is the last we've heard of this. There's now talk that some of the people who were detained now unlawfully, it's been found they could apply for compensation. So yeah, we'll see where all this goes from here. I fear the mess is not over yet.
And it's a shocking story out of Melbourne, where a 12 year old girl has been charged with murder over a stabbing of a 37 year old woman who was found dead in her apartment yesterday. So, according to News Corp, the girl has an intellectual disability and has been in state care for years with concerns for her welfare in the weeks leading up to the death.
Some sad news now a volunteer firefighter has died after being hit by a falling tree in north west New South Wales. The Rural Fire Service has released a statement saying the man had been fighting a blaze with fellow crew members when he was struck near Walgett. The emergency services minister has expressed his condolences, saying it's a tragic reminder of the dangers our volunteer heroes put themselves in to protect our communities.
And there's been a big legal fight between Macca's and Hungry Jack's. So McDonald's took Hungry Jack's to the federal court over an alleged trademark infringement. McDonald's argued Hungry Jack's was in danger of deceiving its customers when it cheekily launched the big Jack burger in 2020, which looked very similar to the Big Mac, big Jack versus Big Mac. The court ruled the big Jack was not deceptively similar to Big Mac. I guess basically that people could tell
the difference. And so, yeah, the big Jack wins and remains.
Yeah, I think, you know, you'd know where you're going for a start, whether it's big Jack or Big Mac, but it is mega cheeky because I've looked at this, I've analysed this, put my investigative journalism hat on. I was looking at pictures of both the Big Mac and Big Jack's side by side, and they look in terms of ingredients. They look very, very much the same except for the sauce placement. The sauce on the big jack is on top of the patty on the Big Mac.
It's on top of the bun. The other really hilarious component to this is Hungry. Jack's put out an ad during court proceedings saying, we're being sued by an American burger chain. But the thing is, our big jack patties are 25% bigger. So then as part of this court case, they had a whole bunch of people travel to 50 different outlets and weigh the patties to make sure. And they actually found out that Hungry Jack's patties were only 15% bigger.
So Patty wow really got into the detail on these burgers, didn't they? When you look at them, they, you know, they have that triple bun thing going on the double patty. They are very, very similar. And actually it's sort of backfired for McDonald's, I reckon, because I actually hadn't heard of the big Jack, but I'm keen to give it a try now.
Oh, there you go. We've also got another interesting consumer story about hard solo, the alcoholic version of solo. There were a lot. A concerns that it used really similar packaging, and that it wouldn't have been much of a transition for kids to confuse the two, or maybe transition over from drinking regular solo to drinking the alcoholic version. Well, Carlton United Breweries now has to rebrand. The Australian Beverages Advertising Code regulator found that that would have a strong
appeal to minors. So they've got to change the name, the packaging. The word solo has to be removed, but the drink will stay the same and that drink has sold out. So it's very popular so far. Right.
Okay. So the new product is going to be called Hard Rated, which is a bit of a weird name. They're going to have to change the packaging as you said. I don't know about this. There's a lot of other alcoholic drinks that also appeal to children, and I imagine it sort of ruins it. The connection with the old solo was part of what made this kind of interesting. So yeah. Will it continue to sell, you know, with this new name that doesn't really make sense. And the
packaging that doesn't really connect with the old solo? I don't know, but I guess it's an interesting precedent because, yeah, if there were lots of other soft drinks that were really popular, and then they just made a slight tweak to turn it into an alcoholic drink, that would be a problem. But yeah, in this particular case with solo, it's just such an old school brand. I don't even know how popular it is with kids. So yeah.
And I can't really imagine, you know, the old school solo commercials with a dude in the canoe going over the waterfall.
Iconic.
Imagine if he'd been on the cans before he tried to do that. Going whitewater rafting drunk? Not good. Yes.
Fair point. Although, you know, some of that stuff I wouldn't have done sober. It looks absolutely crazy. That guy in the canoe. Catch you later, Katrina. It's time to go deep on Lachlan Murdoch. Okay, let's talk real life succession and get to know Lachlan Murdoch. Now that he's officially becoming the chairman of News Corp, along with the other big Murdoch company, which he runs, Fox Corp. Paddy Manning is an investigative reporter who's been researching the Murdochs
for over two years. He's got a podcast on Rupert called The Last Mogul and a book on Lachlan called The Successor. Paddy, thank you so much for joining us.
Thanks for having me, Tom.
So given how much power Lachlan Murdoch has slowly accrued over the years and now consolidated, do you think we here in Australia really know that much about him as a person?
He is incredibly private and I think that he has done a remarkable job, given he's grown up in the spotlight his entire life of keeping his views to himself. On the other hand, he spent more time here than any of the other Murdoch children. He loves Australia. I think he is, you know, better understood here. Perhaps, than he is in America, where they really scratch their heads.
His story seems to be one of many things, but contrasts is one of them, and there's really interesting contrast to explore. One of them is the contrast between him and his father on a personal and political level. How different or how similar are they?
Similarities. They love newspapers. Lachlan is the only one of the kids that's taken much interest in that newspaper and the historical roots of the business.
So you start in your book by talking about the time he spent in some of the Queensland newspapers. Yep. Courier-Mail, etcetera.
Yep. That's right. He gets thrown into the deep end in Australia. He comes here because he reads a biography of his grandfather, Sir Keith, and says, I want to understand the roots of the family and the family business. And he gets thrown into the Super League wars in the 90s and is very quickly up the kind of elevator running Holt Street at running the Australian operations of News Corp at Holt Street in Surry Hills in Sydney. Okay, so.
He's into the newspapers like his father. He genuinely is interested.
Yes. The difference is, of course, that he's inherited at all. He hasn't built an empire. He's inherited. And and he's had an incredibly I mean, like Rupert, he had an incredibly privileged upbringing. You know, Keith Murdoch was wealthy and Rupert went to the best schools and went to Oxford University. Sure. But Keith owned.
Two newspapers, and Rupert took it from there. So an incredible journey in Rupert's lifetime.
He definitely exceeded his father. I mean, there is an argument that his father, as managing director of the Herald and Weekly Times, this is Sir Keith, built Australia's first national media chain. But he didn't own those that empire. He just ran it. Rupert built the world's first global media empire, just having inherited the one newspaper in Adelaide effectively. And yeah, he outmatched his father, probably in the 80s and then has continued for another three decades.
So that's a key difference that Lachlan inherited it very different.
Absolutely. And the other thing is that Lachlan I don't think aspires. He doesn't consider himself a journalist. Keith was a journalist, always editor of the Melbourne Herald and started as a reporter. Rupert was thrown in. He does consider himself a journalist. He's actually always been a proprietor, has been the publisher, but he is a sleeves rolled up media proprietor on the news floor, writing editorials.
Editorial input.
Totally. All his life. He loves newspapers and that is part of his being. But that is where Lachlan is. He's not quite. He's more of a businessman than a journalist, and I don't think he aspires to be the kind of editor in chief, the way highly interventionist, the way Rupert has been all the way through his 70 year career. Nor do I think Lachlan wants to be the political kingmaker that Rupert has been, really. You know, I don't think he's got that, you know, and you could see
it as benign in some ways. It's he doesn't have that ambition to sort of run the world. You know, the way Rupert has had strong opinions on every elected leader in Australia, the United Kingdom, in the US for all those decades.
And generally right wing increasingly so as you sort of chart his journey through the 70s and 80s. But is Lachlan much more of a centrist? Because you you have this great quote from him where he says, I'm not I'm not someone that fits into the left or right binary. I'm someone that is a bit more socially progressive, but economically I'm quite conservative. That's how he tries to position himself. So is that true? Is that a fair representation given the choices he's made over the years?
Well, yeah. It's true that he has always described his politics that way socially smaller, liberal and economically conservative. And in the 90s when he came to Australia, he was anti Hanson pro Republic. You know he's. He had the short cropped hair with the tattoo. Is into rock climbing. He was kind of cool, hip, young, you know, cosmopolitan. Dude.
Fast forward to now. I don't know how you reconcile being socially progressive with also, for example, donating $1 million to the Senate Leadership Fund of Mitch McConnell, who is the architect of the conservative super majority on the US Supreme Court that just did away with Roe v Wade. If you're donating to Mitch McConnell's leadership fund, how can you describe yourself as socially progressive? It doesn't wash in my mind.
Well, the direction of Fox News would also raise that same question. But you deal with that in the book. And there's a quote from him saying, that's a business decision because it's the only big conservative news channel. So is it just about business rather than his values?
I think it is primarily about business for Lachlan. I think he looks at Fox News and it's a successful business. It's an incredible business model. I mean, it has just coughed up almost $1 billion in defamation payments in the Dominion case, and it's still trucking along. The share price has basically remained steady. So it's an incredible business. In his most recent book, Michael Wolff, Not to plug another author, but he describes it as perhaps the most profitable media
business ever made. Fox News it is unbelievably profitable, $2 billion a year that it makes. But Lachlan also has an idea that, you know, someone has to represent. You know, the quality of debate is lifted by a diversity of opinion. Someone has to represent that middle America, if you like, which is underrepresented by the, you know, small liberal media. The way the Murdochs see it, you know, dominated by coastal elites, that's literally how they talk. And someone had
to represent middle America. Now, he's not saying that he agrees with everything that goes to air on Fox News, but he, I think, believes there's a public interest in representing a broader variety of views.
The other interesting contrast in the life of Lachlan Murdoch is that of him and his siblings, particularly his brother James. They're less than two years apart, so very close relationship over the years, but they do seem like very different characters. What's going on with the siblings now that Lachlan has ascended to the top job? And how much store can we put in these reports that there's so much tension that once Rupert actually passes away, the other siblings could roll him straight away?
Well, I think it's a very real scenario, and one that probably does concern Lachlan. What I was told the way I was guided is that when I was researching the biography, talking to other members of the sources close to other members of the family, was that the siblings were determined once Rupert passed, to reassert control of the Murdoch family businesses and do it in a way that protects and enhances democracies around the world rather than undermines them. Right.
So they're in a family trust which controls a large chunk of the voting shares. Correct?
Right. Yep. And they say they control about 40%. It's enough for the Murdoch family to control the empire.
Because if you were to get the other 60% to vote against them, everyone in that 60% would have to agree, which is unlikely. Very unlikely. So this is where it comes back to the TV show succession as possible, where they're trying to corral the other shareholders to vote with them on certain deals.
Lachlan. Well, perhaps course correct. It is possible they have just done it this year in the wake of the Dominion settlement. Within a week, Lachlan took the decision to fire their biggest star, Tucker Carlson, the most controversial person on air in cable television.
Not Rupert's.
Lachlan call. Well, you know, they have been doing this delicate kind of dance with Trump all year. Well, in fact, since 2020, how do they, especially now that they've had to pay out to the Dominion $787 million and they've got more litigation coming.
For our listeners. That's for essentially pushing the stolen election narrative on Fox News despite knowing it was bullshit.
Exactly, exactly. All those evidence, all that emails, texts, the sworn testimony of Rupert, Lachlan and others all show that none of them believed, except maybe Maria Bartiromo. None of them believed that the election had been stolen from Trump, but they still put it to air multiple times.
Okay, so a lot of Australians are very critical of the Murdochs and their impact on politics, particularly here in Australia and of course, in America. Kevin Rudd is one of the loudest voices, less so now that he's in the ambassador role in America, Malcolm Turnbull, many others. Do you think the critics of the Murdochs and their influence could actually see the company move in a more favourable direction under Lachlan than it has under Rupert Murdoch?
Look, I think it is possible because there will be the pressure from his siblings to do that. The other alternative is that. The Murdoch family decide once Rupert has passed to just sell. Literally break it up so the.
Three other siblings could force Lachlan to do that.
They could. They could put the whole thing on the market. Interestingly enough, in the Michael Wolff book that has just come out, there's a lot of verbatim quoting from Roger Ailes. Wolf and Ailes died in 2017. Former boss of the who, the founder co founder with Rupert of Fox News and Roger Ailes tells Wolf that the Murdoch in his view, the Murdoch children all regard Fox News as a steaming pile of shit on the table. They're all embarrassed by it. Now,
I have dealt extensively with the people around Lachlan. He is running Fox News, but there's a tension there because he's based here in Australia more often than not.
Okay, so he's grown up in a different generation. He's more interested in living in Sydney, which is, you know, a better lifestyle than living in America. You're saying that his politics aren't as hardcore as his father. You're saying that his views, whatever they are, are going to be tempered by his siblings, who are much more progressive. Link all of that together. Very different picture emerges of the leadership of this big corporation.
Yeah. I mean, look, Lachlan has a reputation for being right of Rupert. A lot of people will say that, but it's just not the way I've been briefed. I mean, look, he just put Tony Abbott on the board. Tony Abbott is an arch conservative. He's just been appointed to the board of Fox Corporation. He's a, you know, trenchant climate denial. He's just opposed the voice referendum. I mean, he is staunch Catholic. He is as far right as you get
in the Liberal Party in Australia. You know, I'm not naive about Lachlan's politics, but I think the combination of the dynamic within the family and this kind of unspoken ambivalence that, you know, seems to kind of be deep seated does lead me to question whether Lachlan really is the kind of right wing ideologue that most people assume that he is.
Paddy Manning and his work on Lachlan Murdoch is in his book called successor, and you can get across his new podcast series on Rupert Murdoch. It's called Rupert The Last Mogul. Antoinette is going to bring you the weekend briefing, dropping into your feed tomorrow. Antoinette, who are you speaking to this week?
I have a super interesting chat with author feminist Clementine Ford about her latest book, I Don't The Case Against Marriage. Super, super interesting, particularly given I've been married for 13 years and Clem makes the case that women shouldn't take their husbands surnames. I've taken mine, so it's both personal, political, entertaining. We don't agree on everything, but I think it makes for a fascinating chat and certainly left me with lots of things to think about.
Yeah, Clementine Ford on the briefing. That will be a very interesting chat. Thank you, Antoinette, and thank you very much to our hard working team here at the briefing. I'll catch you Monday. Listener.