The decline of the Coalition of Murdoch-led media and rise of the young

The Coalition's spectacular Election failure demonstrates the waning power of the News Corp-led media cartel. Founder Dave Donovan and managing editor Michelle Pini report.

THE 2025 FEDERAL ELECTION may, in time, be regarded as the most significant election in a generation.

The Australian people appear to have roundly rejected the Trumpian-style politics espoused by the Coalition under Peter Dutton, signalling a long-overdue shift towards more stable and progressive politics. And they did so despite Australia’s mainstream media's "Peter Dutton says" default position.

Endless hours devoted to Peter Dutton’s reactionary Coalition as the preferred government, notwithstanding, this time, the News Corp-led establishment media and their billionaire backers failed spectacularly to persuade the Australian people.

Younger Australians, who now make up the majority of voters and consumers of news, see a world falling apart, being driven by corruption and greed, and favouring the few over the many. They are now making their voices heard at the ballot box. And as ageing tycoons like Rupert Murdoch begin to lose their python grip on the people, those voices have begun rising to a roar.

ELECTION LESSON #1: Australians want the Far-Right-crazy dialled down, not up

While Saturday’s election result was an outstanding Labor win, it was also a clear and powerful message for our polity: Australians want the Far-Right-crazy dialled down, not up.

It’s obvious that the Coalition’s backward policies of backing nuclear power and ignoring climate change, cutting the public service Musk-style, and ditching tax cuts and services for poor people, all while putting money into the pockets of billionaires, were fiercely rejected by the Australian people.

The Liberal Party, particularly, was hammered, falling to a meagre 18 seats out of 150 in the House of Representatives. That is almost as few as LNP in Queensland, which itself lost six seats to fall to 16. The National Party retained nine of the ten and promptly blew up the Coalition after the Election — although it appears this rocky relationship is back on again. How long it lasts this time is anyone’s guess, but the fault lines look deep.

At this time, the future of the Coalition looks anything but bright. It may be time for them to abandon some of their more anti-social, pro-oligarch policies in favour of the broader sweep of humanity. The litmus test will surely be how the various political parties and their wounded media cheer squad regroup in the shadow of the decimated conservative parties.

News Corp and its fellow travellers have shaped Australia’s political narrative for so long. And with the voting public largely abandoning traditional conservative sources in favour of largely more progressive online sources, their traditional bulwark in the printed press is becoming increasingly irrelevant. Put simply, the only people reading newspapers these days are the elderly. Newspapers, like the majority of people who still read them, may be fast approaching their expiry date.

And, as we have mentioned before, younger people do not read News Corp-led publications in print or online, or watch Sky News.

Still, the thumping victory by Labor may also be partially attributed to the more senior among us. Babyboomers als recoil in shock and shame at images and soundbites of the boorish buffoon gracelessly occupying the Oval Office, as he shatters their superannuation balances and tips the world towards catastrophe and war.

Labor maintained a no-fuss small-target strategy from the last election to this, focusing on stability. Ironically, with the Coalition’s extreme Far-Right policies mentioned above, Labor's steady-as-she-goes approach is now clearly the less radical of the two sides of politics. Stability and solid government have never looked more appealing to the general public, old and young.

The ALP received a landslide victory of a scale never before achieved by a single party, picking up 16 seats so far as final counting continues (tying the Coalition's two-party 1996 record). Labor received a 3.1% swing in its two-party-preferred (2PP) vote to hold sway by 55 to 45 (note the below tabulation).

However, the scale of the Labor victory in terms of representation (over ten per cent) was not commensurate with the far smaller increase in its primary vote. In fact, it was fortunate to win a number of marginal seats by razor-thin margins.

And despite The Greens losing almost all of its lower house representatives in such marginal seat contests, its primary vote remained almost stable (declining by just 0.05 per cent),as did the Independents' representation overall.

Given the seesawing nature of politics, one might expect a readjustment at the next election, (hopefully) featuring a more congenial global environment as Trump’s second term approaches its finale, This may result in The Greens regaining some of their seats, perhaps by focusing more upon their core values – the environment – and the Independents similarly increasing their representation, making for a more multipartisan parliament. Unless, somehow, the Liberal Party and its media backers recover from having their primary vote demolished this year and stage a monumental recovery plan.

101 mind-blowing reasons why Dutton is unfit to be PM

We will soon learn whether Peter “Temu Trump” Dutton’s ultra-conservative Coalition can persuade Australians to eject the sitting Albanese Labor Government in its favour.

This last scenario seems unlikely given that Albanese appears to be moving forward with the policies his Government took to the Election. And now that Dutton is no longer beamed through every available network spreading hatred about Palestinians, among others, the PM appears to be making other progressive strides, such as finally recognising Israel as a rogue state and providing additional funding for flood-stricken communities.

Then again, the Woodside gas project approval does not bode well for real progress on climate change.

With the mainstream media cartel’s power visibly waning, it remains to be seen if the Labor Government can step up beyond these tentative baby steps and make purposeful strides on Gaza, on the environment and on addressing inequality.

We believe that if Labor moves steadily down a more progressive path – as it seems to be cautiously entering for the most part – and the Coalition retains many or most of its unfriendly policies – as its urgers, such as Gina Rinehart, advise – the decline of the Coalition and its irrelevant Murdoch-led cheer squad may be terminal.

The future is as uncertain as ever, and the job of people who support a truly independent and progressive Australia is far from complete. Please don’t cancel your Independent Australia subscriptions just yet.