S1: A listener production.
S2: In this episode of The Briefing, a man who is
S2: becoming one of the most powerful Australians in the world,
S2: a man we don't really know that much about Lachlan Murdoch.
S3: He is incredibly private. He has done a remarkable job,
S3: given he's grown up in the spotlight his entire life
S3: of keeping his views to himself.
S2: The Murdoch family are the owners of the huge global
S2: media empire News Corp, built by Lachlan's father Rupert, who
S2: is now 92 years old and recently announced that he
S2: was stepping down. And 52 year old Lachlan, his eldest son,
S2: will be stepping up as chairman of News Corp.
S4: New line of succession at Fox News Rupert Murdoch announcing
S4: he will be stepping down as chairman of Fox and
S4: News Corporation.
S5: Now Lachlan is in the driver's seat and he has
S5: come out on top.
S4: The 92 year old will hand over the reins to
S4: his son Lachlan Murdoch.
S2: So what is Lachlan Murdoch really like? Is he is
S2: right wing as his father. And we'll also talk about
S2: the succession style plot twist that could happen once Rupert
S2: passes away. That is our briefing. First, here are today's
S2: big headlines.
S6: Hey, Tom. Hello, everyone. While Federal Parliament has passed the
S6: government's emergency laws to strengthen visa conditions for a group
S6: of people deemed high risk after their release from immigration detention.
S7: We are in a rush. I would like to get
S7: this through the Parliament.
S6: Yes, they were in a rush. Home Affairs Claire O'Neill
S6: in Parliament yesterday, former immigration detainees who breached these new
S6: laws restricting their movements will face a mandatory one year
S6: jail sentence. So this comes after more than 80 detainees
S6: were released after a recent High Court ruling that indefinite
S6: immigration detention is illegal for anyone with no real prospect
S6: of being deported. What a tense week for the government, Tom.
S2: Yeah, this all blew up very quickly for the government.
S2: This High Court decision seemingly caught them on the hop
S2: they weren't prepared for, I guess, what to do with
S2: these people who'd been released, particularly the more potentially dangerous
S2: members of that cohort and the opposition have really seized
S2: on it as a community safety issue. So they've had
S2: to push through this legislation very quickly. It's no exaggeration
S2: to say they rushed it through. Claire O'Neill just admitted
S2: it herself. So part of it will be that they'll
S2: have a curfew between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., where
S2: an electronic monitoring device, they'll have to report to federal
S2: authorities quite frequently, notify the department if they'd go into state, stateless,
S2: the memberships of organisations, and they can't work with children.
S2: And if they don't comply, they could be put behind
S2: bars for up to five years. Yeah.
S6: I don't think this is the last we've heard of this.
S6: There's now talk that some of the people who were
S6: detained now unlawfully, it's been found they could apply for compensation.
S6: So yeah, we'll see where all this goes from here.
S6: I fear the mess is not over yet.
S2: And it's a shocking story out of Melbourne, where a
S2: 12 year old girl has been charged with murder over
S2: a stabbing of a 37 year old woman who was
S2: found dead in her apartment yesterday. So, according to News Corp,
S2: the girl has an intellectual disability and has been in
S2: state care for years with concerns for her welfare in
S2: the weeks leading up to the death.
S6: Some sad news now a volunteer firefighter has died after
S6: being hit by a falling tree in north west New
S6: South Wales. The Rural Fire Service has released a statement
S6: saying the man had been fighting a blaze with fellow
S6: crew members when he was struck near Walgett. The emergency
S6: services minister has expressed his condolences, saying it's a tragic
S6: reminder of the dangers our volunteer heroes put themselves in
S6: to protect our communities.
S2: And there's been a big legal fight between Macca's and
S2: Hungry Jack's. So McDonald's took Hungry Jack's to the federal
S2: court over an alleged trademark infringement. McDonald's argued Hungry Jack's
S2: was in danger of deceiving its customers when it cheekily
S2: launched the big Jack burger in 2020, which looked very
S2: similar to the Big Mac, big Jack versus Big Mac.
S2: The court ruled the big Jack was not deceptively similar
S2: to Big Mac. I guess basically that people could tell
S2: the difference. And so, yeah, the big Jack wins and remains.
S6: Yeah, I think, you know, you'd know where you're going
S6: for a start, whether it's big Jack or Big Mac,
S6: but it is mega cheeky because I've looked at this,
S6: I've analysed this, put my investigative journalism hat on. I
S6: was looking at pictures of both the Big Mac and
S6: Big Jack's side by side, and they look in terms
S6: of ingredients. They look very, very much the same except
S6: for the sauce placement. The sauce on the big jack
S6: is on top of the patty on the Big Mac.
S6: It's on top of the bun. The other really hilarious
S6: component to this is Hungry. Jack's put out an ad
S6: during court proceedings saying, we're being sued by an American
S6: burger chain. But the thing is, our big jack patties
S6: are 25% bigger. So then as part of this court case,
S6: they had a whole bunch of people travel to 50
S6: different outlets and weigh the patties to make sure. And
S6: they actually found out that Hungry Jack's patties were only 15% bigger.
S2: So Patty wow really got into the detail on these burgers,
S2: didn't they? When you look at them, they, you know,
S2: they have that triple bun thing going on the double patty.
S2: They are very, very similar. And actually it's sort of
S2: backfired for McDonald's, I reckon, because I actually hadn't heard
S2: of the big Jack, but I'm keen to give it
S2: a try now.
S6: Oh, there you go. We've also got another interesting consumer
S6: story about hard solo, the alcoholic version of solo. There
S6: were a lot. A concerns that it used really similar packaging,
S6: and that it wouldn't have been much of a transition
S6: for kids to confuse the two, or maybe transition over
S6: from drinking regular solo to drinking the alcoholic version. Well,
S6: Carlton United Breweries now has to rebrand. The Australian Beverages
S6: Advertising Code regulator found that that would have a strong
S6: appeal to minors. So they've got to change the name,
S6: the packaging. The word solo has to be removed, but
S6: the drink will stay the same and that drink has
S6: sold out. So it's very popular so far. Right.
S2: Okay. So the new product is going to be called
S2: Hard Rated, which is a bit of a weird name.
S2: They're going to have to change the packaging as you said.
S2: I don't know about this. There's a lot of other
S2: alcoholic drinks that also appeal to children, and I imagine
S2: it sort of ruins it. The connection with the old
S2: solo was part of what made this kind of interesting.
S2: So yeah. Will it continue to sell, you know, with
S2: this new name that doesn't really make sense. And the
S2: packaging that doesn't really connect with the old solo? I
S2: don't know, but I guess it's an interesting precedent because, yeah,
S2: if there were lots of other soft drinks that were
S2: really popular, and then they just made a slight tweak
S2: to turn it into an alcoholic drink, that would be
S2: a problem. But yeah, in this particular case with solo,
S2: it's just such an old school brand. I don't even
S2: know how popular it is with kids. So yeah.
S6: And I can't really imagine, you know, the old school
S6: solo commercials with a dude in the canoe going over
S6: the waterfall.
S8: Iconic.
S6: Imagine if he'd been on the cans before he tried
S6: to do that. Going whitewater rafting drunk? Not good. Yes.
S2: Fair point. Although, you know, some of that stuff I
S2: wouldn't have done sober. It looks absolutely crazy. That guy
S2: in the canoe. Catch you later, Katrina. It's time to
S2: go deep on Lachlan Murdoch. Okay, let's talk real life
S2: succession and get to know Lachlan Murdoch. Now that he's
S2: officially becoming the chairman of News Corp, along with the
S2: other big Murdoch company, which he runs, Fox Corp. Paddy
S2: Manning is an investigative reporter who's been researching the Murdochs
S2: for over two years. He's got a podcast on Rupert
S2: called The Last Mogul and a book on Lachlan called
S2: The Successor. Paddy, thank you so much for joining us.
S3: Thanks for having me, Tom.
S2: So given how much power Lachlan Murdoch has slowly accrued
S2: over the years and now consolidated, do you think we
S2: here in Australia really know that much about him as
S2: a person?
S3: He is incredibly private and I think that he has
S3: done a remarkable job, given he's grown up in the
S3: spotlight his entire life of keeping his views to himself.
S3: On the other hand, he spent more time here than
S3: any of the other Murdoch children. He loves Australia. I
S3: think he is, you know, better understood here. Perhaps, than
S3: he is in America, where they really scratch their heads.
S2: His story seems to be one of many things, but
S2: contrasts is one of them, and there's really interesting contrast
S2: to explore. One of them is the contrast between him
S2: and his father on a personal and political level. How
S2: different or how similar are they?
S3: Similarities. They love newspapers. Lachlan is the only one of
S3: the kids that's taken much interest in that newspaper and
S3: the historical roots of the business.
S2: So you start in your book by talking about the
S2: time he spent in some of the Queensland newspapers. Yep. Courier-Mail, etcetera.
S3: Yep. That's right. He gets thrown into the deep end
S3: in Australia. He comes here because he reads a biography
S3: of his grandfather, Sir Keith, and says, I want to
S3: understand the roots of the family and the family business.
S3: And he gets thrown into the Super League wars in
S3: the 90s and is very quickly up the kind of
S3: elevator running Holt Street at running the Australian operations of
S3: News Corp at Holt Street in Surry Hills in Sydney. Okay, so.
S2: He's into the newspapers like his father. He genuinely is interested.
S3: Yes. The difference is, of course, that he's inherited at all.
S3: He hasn't built an empire. He's inherited. And and he's
S3: had an incredibly I mean, like Rupert, he had an
S3: incredibly privileged upbringing. You know, Keith Murdoch was wealthy and
S3: Rupert went to the best schools and went to Oxford University. Sure.
S3: But Keith owned.
S2: Two newspapers, and Rupert took it from there. So an
S2: incredible journey in Rupert's lifetime.
S3: He definitely exceeded his father. I mean, there is an
S3: argument that his father, as managing director of the Herald
S3: and Weekly Times, this is Sir Keith, built Australia's first
S3: national media chain. But he didn't own those that empire.
S3: He just ran it. Rupert built the world's first global
S3: media empire, just having inherited the one newspaper in Adelaide effectively.
S3: And yeah, he outmatched his father, probably in the 80s
S3: and then has continued for another three decades.
S2: So that's a key difference that Lachlan inherited it very different.
S3: Absolutely. And the other thing is that Lachlan I don't
S3: think aspires. He doesn't consider himself a journalist. Keith was
S3: a journalist, always editor of the Melbourne Herald and started
S3: as a reporter. Rupert was thrown in. He does consider
S3: himself a journalist. He's actually always been a proprietor, has
S3: been the publisher, but he is a sleeves rolled up
S3: media proprietor on the news floor, writing editorials.
S2: Editorial input.
S3: Totally. All his life. He loves newspapers and that is
S3: part of his being. But that is where Lachlan is.
S3: He's not quite. He's more of a businessman than a journalist,
S3: and I don't think he aspires to be the kind
S3: of editor in chief, the way highly interventionist, the way
S3: Rupert has been all the way through his 70 year career.
S3: Nor do I think Lachlan wants to be the political
S3: kingmaker that Rupert has been, really. You know, I don't
S3: think he's got that, you know, and you could see
S3: it as benign in some ways. It's he doesn't have
S3: that ambition to sort of run the world. You know,
S3: the way Rupert has had strong opinions on every elected
S3: leader in Australia, the United Kingdom, in the US for
S3: all those decades.
S2: And generally right wing increasingly so as you sort of
S2: chart his journey through the 70s and 80s. But is
S2: Lachlan much more of a centrist? Because you you have
S2: this great quote from him where he says, I'm not
S2: I'm not someone that fits into the left or right binary.
S2: I'm someone that is a bit more socially progressive, but
S2: economically I'm quite conservative. That's how he tries to position himself.
S2: So is that true? Is that a fair representation given
S2: the choices he's made over the years?
S3: Well, yeah. It's true that he has always described his
S3: politics that way socially smaller, liberal and economically conservative. And
S3: in the 90s when he came to Australia, he was
S3: anti Hanson pro Republic. You know he's. He had the
S3: short cropped hair with the tattoo. Is into rock climbing.
S3: He was kind of cool, hip, young, you know, cosmopolitan. Dude.
S3: Fast forward to now. I don't know how you reconcile
S3: being socially progressive with also, for example, donating $1 million
S3: to the Senate Leadership Fund of Mitch McConnell, who is
S3: the architect of the conservative super majority on the US
S3: Supreme Court that just did away with Roe v Wade.
S3: If you're donating to Mitch McConnell's leadership fund, how can
S3: you describe yourself as socially progressive? It doesn't wash in
S3: my mind.
S2: Well, the direction of Fox News would also raise that
S2: same question. But you deal with that in the book.
S2: And there's a quote from him saying, that's a business
S2: decision because it's the only big conservative news channel. So
S2: is it just about business rather than his values?
S3: I think it is primarily about business for Lachlan. I
S3: think he looks at Fox News and it's a successful business.
S3: It's an incredible business model. I mean, it has just
S3: coughed up almost $1 billion in defamation payments in the
S3: Dominion case, and it's still trucking along. The share price
S3: has basically remained steady. So it's an incredible business. In
S3: his most recent book, Michael Wolff, Not to plug another author,
S3: but he describes it as perhaps the most profitable media
S3: business ever made. Fox News it is unbelievably profitable, $2
S3: billion a year that it makes. But Lachlan also has
S3: an idea that, you know, someone has to represent. You know,
S3: the quality of debate is lifted by a diversity of opinion.
S3: Someone has to represent that middle America, if you like,
S3: which is underrepresented by the, you know, small liberal media.
S3: The way the Murdochs see it, you know, dominated by
S3: coastal elites, that's literally how they talk. And someone had
S3: to represent middle America. Now, he's not saying that he
S3: agrees with everything that goes to air on Fox News,
S3: but he, I think, believes there's a public interest in
S3: representing a broader variety of views.
S2: The other interesting contrast in the life of Lachlan Murdoch
S2: is that of him and his siblings, particularly his brother James.
S2: They're less than two years apart, so very close relationship
S2: over the years, but they do seem like very different characters.
S2: What's going on with the siblings now that Lachlan has
S2: ascended to the top job? And how much store can
S2: we put in these reports that there's so much tension
S2: that once Rupert actually passes away, the other siblings could
S2: roll him straight away?
S3: Well, I think it's a very real scenario, and one
S3: that probably does concern Lachlan. What I was told the
S3: way I was guided is that when I was researching
S3: the biography, talking to other members of the sources close
S3: to other members of the family, was that the siblings
S3: were determined once Rupert passed, to reassert control of the
S3: Murdoch family businesses and do it in a way that
S3: protects and enhances democracies around the world rather than undermines them. Right.
S2: So they're in a family trust which controls a large
S2: chunk of the voting shares. Correct?
S3: Right. Yep. And they say they control about 40%. It's
S3: enough for the Murdoch family to control the empire.
S2: Because if you were to get the other 60% to
S2: vote against them, everyone in that 60% would have to agree,
S2: which is unlikely. Very unlikely. So this is where it
S2: comes back to the TV show succession as possible, where
S2: they're trying to corral the other shareholders to vote with
S2: them on certain deals.
S3: Lachlan. Well, perhaps course correct. It is possible they have
S3: just done it this year in the wake of the
S3: Dominion settlement. Within a week, Lachlan took the decision to
S3: fire their biggest star, Tucker Carlson, the most controversial person
S3: on air in cable television.
S2: Not Rupert's.
S3: Lachlan call. Well, you know, they have been doing this
S3: delicate kind of dance with Trump all year. Well, in fact,
S3: since 2020, how do they, especially now that they've had
S3: to pay out to the Dominion $787 million and they've
S3: got more litigation coming.
S2: For our listeners. That's for essentially pushing the stolen election
S2: narrative on Fox News despite knowing it was bullshit.
S3: Exactly, exactly. All those evidence, all that emails, texts, the
S3: sworn testimony of Rupert, Lachlan and others all show that
S3: none of them believed, except maybe Maria Bartiromo. None of
S3: them believed that the election had been stolen from Trump,
S3: but they still put it to air multiple times.
S2: Okay, so a lot of Australians are very critical of
S2: the Murdochs and their impact on politics, particularly here in
S2: Australia and of course, in America. Kevin Rudd is one
S2: of the loudest voices, less so now that he's in
S2: the ambassador role in America, Malcolm Turnbull, many others. Do
S2: you think the critics of the Murdochs and their influence
S2: could actually see the company move in a more favourable
S2: direction under Lachlan than it has under Rupert Murdoch?
S3: Look, I think it is possible because there will be
S3: the pressure from his siblings to do that. The other
S3: alternative is that. The Murdoch family decide once Rupert has
S3: passed to just sell. Literally break it up so the.
S2: Three other siblings could force Lachlan to do that.
S3: They could. They could put the whole thing on the market.
S3: Interestingly enough, in the Michael Wolff book that has just
S3: come out, there's a lot of verbatim quoting from Roger Ailes.
S3: Wolf and Ailes died in 2017. Former boss of the who,
S3: the founder co founder with Rupert of Fox News and
S3: Roger Ailes tells Wolf that the Murdoch in his view,
S3: the Murdoch children all regard Fox News as a steaming
S3: pile of shit on the table. They're all embarrassed by it. Now,
S3: I have dealt extensively with the people around Lachlan. He
S3: is running Fox News, but there's a tension there because
S3: he's based here in Australia more often than not.
S2: Okay, so he's grown up in a different generation. He's
S2: more interested in living in Sydney, which is, you know,
S2: a better lifestyle than living in America. You're saying that
S2: his politics aren't as hardcore as his father. You're saying
S2: that his views, whatever they are, are going to be
S2: tempered by his siblings, who are much more progressive. Link
S2: all of that together. Very different picture emerges of the
S2: leadership of this big corporation.
S3: Yeah. I mean, look, Lachlan has a reputation for being
S3: right of Rupert. A lot of people will say that,
S3: but it's just not the way I've been briefed. I mean, look,
S3: he just put Tony Abbott on the board. Tony Abbott
S3: is an arch conservative. He's just been appointed to the
S3: board of Fox Corporation. He's a, you know, trenchant climate denial.
S3: He's just opposed the voice referendum. I mean, he is
S3: staunch Catholic. He is as far right as you get
S3: in the Liberal Party in Australia. You know, I'm not
S3: naive about Lachlan's politics, but I think the combination of
S3: the dynamic within the family and this kind of unspoken
S3: ambivalence that, you know, seems to kind of be deep
S3: seated does lead me to question whether Lachlan really is
S3: the kind of right wing ideologue that most people assume
S3: that he is.
S2: Paddy Manning and his work on Lachlan Murdoch is in
S2: his book called successor, and you can get across his
S2: new podcast series on Rupert Murdoch. It's called Rupert The
S2: Last Mogul. Antoinette is going to bring you the weekend briefing,
S2: dropping into your feed tomorrow. Antoinette, who are you speaking
S2: to this week?
S1: I have a super interesting chat with author feminist Clementine
S1: Ford about her latest book, I Don't The Case Against Marriage. Super,
S1: super interesting, particularly given I've been married for 13 years
S1: and Clem makes the case that women shouldn't take their
S1: husbands surnames. I've taken mine, so it's both personal, political, entertaining.
S1: We don't agree on everything, but I think it makes
S1: for a fascinating chat and certainly left me with lots
S1: of things to think about.
S2: Yeah, Clementine Ford on the briefing. That will be a
S2: very interesting chat. Thank you, Antoinette, and thank you very
S2: much to our hard working team here at the briefing.
S2: I'll catch you Monday. Listener.