Queensland - Population 4,228,290

New South Wales Population - 6,926,990

Victoria - Population 5,246,079

South Australia - Population 1,591,930

Western Australia - Population 2,130,797

Tasmania - Population 495,772

Northern Territory - Population 217,559

Readership statistics for these papers

Newscorp and by voting rights, Rupert Murdoch's almost complete domination of the press and public opinion in Australia is overwhelming. And he is very smart with the target markets he pursues.

All of the provincial and local newspapers are just to complete the saturation and dominance within the Australian market place.

==========================================================================

Yesterday Kevin Rudd, Australia's Prime Minister, like many world leaders before him, made an impassioned plea over an issue which we all have to take seriously if we have a hope to see the end of the 21st century, in climate change.

There was a diary written over at Daily Kos by MooingChoir detailing how Mr Rudd had called out the leaders of politics around the world, specifically the denialist attitude of many in US politics.

Smack! Australian Prime Minister calls out US Republican Climate Deniers

The truth is this is hard, because the climate change skeptics, the climate change deniers, the opponents of climate change action are active in every country.

They are a minority. They are powerful. And invariably they are driven by vested interests.

Powerful enough to so far block domestic legislation in Australia, powerful enough to so far slow down the passage of legislation through the US Congress. And ultimately – by limiting the ambition of national climate change commitments – they are powerful enough to threaten a deal on global climate change both in Copenhagen and beyond.

Today Mr Murdoch, guaranteed a news cycle through sheer force of numbers of his media machine, decided to make a number of 'observations' singling out Mr Rudd for multiple criticism.

Rudd too sensitive to criticism: Murdoch

Media magnate Rupert Murdoch says Kevin Rudd is too sensitive to media criticism and is more interested in strutting the world stage than running Australia.

"He doesn't like criticism," Mr Murdoch told Sky News.

"He expresses his complaints more vociferously and faster."

"He's different in that he's more ambitious to lead the world than to lead Australia," he told Sky News, but quickly added that the comment may be a "little unfair" though "there's some truth in it".

Mr Murdoch said it was ridiculous for Australia to think it could lead the world in tackling climate change.

"I don't believe that Australia trying to be first in the world with cap and trade ... is going to have any influence on the rest of the world," he said.

So the owner of news interests which saturate multiple markets decides that he should 'dictate' terms in response to the Prime Minister of Australia. He takes a number of cheap shots inferring our Prime Minister has some sort of ambitions to be a world leader, weighs in on a specific policy which the opposition party has been twisting themselves into pretzels over to avoid even discussing in Australian parliament.

This is a blatant abuse of the power of the press Mr Murdoch. Timed specifically to rebut Mr Rudd, an elected official of the Australian government. That's right, Australians went to the polls and democratically elected this man to do what he believes is the right thing for Australia.

Specifically, dealing with the implications of climate change was one of those policies Mr Rudd was elected on.

When you say he is being sensitive that your media empire is abusing the public trust, I say he has a point which you have just demonstrated perfectly.

One last question, when did you actually put yourself on the firing line and run for elected office so you could see whether or not your concepts and ideas of how the world should work could be tested?

Because you have not ever actually put yourself out there, how about you leave the debate to the actual leaders of Australian parliament to worry about and get on with running what you claim is only a 'News' business, not a propaganda outlet?

==============================================

Update: Timed to co-incide with the Sunday morning newspapers in Australia, it seems Newscorp has decided to interview Australia's former Prime Minister, the one Kevin Rudd defeated, who is supposedly no longer in politics.

However this is not entirely accurate as it seems that Mr Howard, despite having been his own man as PM for 11 years, is now working closely with Mr Murdoch to disrupt the administrations of both Barack Obama and Kevin Rudd.

October 6/7

McChrystal speaks out about Afghanistan

Australia's ex-Prime Minister weighs in
Send more troops or lose the war: Howard

Remember that John Howard was backed for 11 years by Rupert Murdoch and remained Australias Prime Minister for all that time.

Amazingly, immediately following this timed commentary what is John Howards Reward?

News Limited newspapers have reported Mr Howard has been contacted by Gold Coast Titans chief executive Michael Searle, and asked to be chairman of an independent commission to run the NRL.

The NRL, Australias National Rugby League, is a Newscorp backed organisation.

In the interview in the Sunday papers, Mr Howard has joined in the chorus attacking Mr Rudd over issues which have been inflated by the Murdoch machine.

John Howard takes revenge on Kevin Rudd
FORMER prime minister John Howard has launched an extraordinary attack on Kevin Rudd, accusing him of running a wasteful do-nothing government and mishandling the asylum seeker issue.

In his first extensive interview since he left political life two years ago, Mr Howard criticised the Rudd Government over its emphasis on symbolism and high-level spending.

I'd stop the boats: Howard

FORMER Prime Minister John Howard has branded Kevin Rudd as head of a "do-nothing'' government that has wasted the nation's savings and bungled asylum-seeker policy.

Really, this does not appear to be a coincidence as both these articles are from Murdoch's News organization.