Tony Abbott Finds Time In Busy US Visit Schedule To Have Lunch With Rupert Murdoch


Tony Abbott‘s certainly not wasting much time in his visit to North America. After visiting Canadia and exchanging pleasantries with his newest BFF, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Prime Minister Abbott has now moved on to the grand ole’ U-S-of-A ahead of a much anticipated meeting with US President Barack Obama towards the end of this week, where the two are expected to clash over their vastly differing views on Climate Change legislation.
Abbott has slowly been amassing a bloc of like-minded conservative nations with the view towards blocking Climate Change being a dominating topic at the forthcoming G20 Summit in Brisbane, chumming up with nations such as Canada, New Zealand and India, all of which have conservative, ideologically similar leaders.
Despite this busy schedule, Abbott today took time out to have lunch with the head of NewsCorp, the benevolent and infallible (if you read his papers) Rupert Murdoch. Abbott, along with his much feared Chief of Staff Peta Credlin, was spotted entering the upscale Manhattan apartment of Murdoch earlier, before leaving two-and-a-half hours later.
Back home, Greens leader Christine Milne took the opportunity to have a dig at Abbott over the visit.

It should be noted that visiting Murdoch is not unusual for an Australian leader. Both Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard visited the media mogul during their times as Prime Minister. Though neither of them got a full front page dedicated to their face with “Australia Needs Kevin/Julia” splashed across it, so it’s not hard to imagine the nature of the meeting between Abbott and Murdoch would be a wee bit different to that of Rudd and Gillard.

Though no details have emerged as to the nature of discussions held, we can only assume that plotting Tony’s re-grasping of the youth vote through relentless NewsCorp coverage comprised the bulk of talks.
And in which case, look for the following issue of The Sunday Telegraph to hit newsstands this weekend.
Photos: Cole Burston and Stefan Postles via Getty Images.

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