Energy Minister Chris Bowen has criticised Sky News presenter Andrew Bolt after he threatened to leave News Corp if James Murdoch took over.
Billionaire media magnate Rupert Murdoch is embroiled in a row with three of his children after he sought to change the terms of his family trust fund, handing over the bulk of his empire to his eldest son and News Corp chairman Lachlan Murdoch.
His three eldest siblings, James, Elisabeth and Prudence, will appear in court in September to discuss the case.
James resigned from News Corp’s board in 2020, citing strategic decisions and editorial content he disagreed with.
On Thursday, Bolt hit out at Murdoch’s youngest son, saying: ‘James could fire me when he takes over, but he doesn’t have to.
“I wouldn’t be the only one who wouldn’t want to work for him.”
Hours later, federal MP Chris Bowen shared Bolt’s resignation threat on X – with the sarcastic comment: ‘How would we deal with this?’
Climate and Energy Minister Chris Bowen was pictured at the National Press Club last week
Lachlan Murdoch could inherit the majority of News Corp when his father dies. He is pictured with his wife, Sarah.
On Friday, Chris Bowen responded to Andrew Bolt’s threat to leave News Corp if James Murdoch took over
Users responded, with one saying, “What do you care? Oh, that’s right, because he’s confronting you.”
Another wrote: ‘Well done, exactly what a minister should do: dive straight into the gutter.’
But not everyone was critical. Some were enthusiastic about the idea that Bolt could step down.
A third user said: ‘Come on James! You can do it.’
Someone else wrote: ‘There’s a good chance we’ll make it.’
The minister’s post is the result of years of mudslinging between the two.
Last week, Bolt wrote a scathing column about Mr Bowen in News Corp newspapers, calling the minister an “idiot” and a “liar” over comments he made at the National Press Club.
Mr Bowen said: ‘Open denial of climate change is less popular in public debate now than it was 10 or 15 years ago.’
‘Andrew Bolt still does it, but most other people don’t bother with it anymore.’
The conservative commentator argued that he does not deny climate change, but that he simply does not see the situation as “catastrophic” as Bowen claims.
Bolt has consistently criticised Mr Bowen’s plans to transition from fossil fuels to wind and solar farms, calling him someone who is “in total denial” and “can’t hear the truth”.
He also once claimed Bowen was “the most dangerous person in government” after the minister claimed green energy was becoming cheaper.
Conservative columnist Andrew Bolt (pictured) once called the climate minister a ‘threat to Australia’
Rupert Murdoch is pictured in the center with his two sons Lachlan, left, and James, right
In return, Mr Bowen has called for Bolt to be sacked, saying the energy minister was “surrendering to primitive man” by starting a speech in Dubai with a mock recognition of his country.
The minister said Bolt had crossed a line and called the comment “racist and disgusting”.
“Like most Australians, I mostly ignore Andrew Bolt,” Bowen wrote.
“But this time I won’t. His attack on First Nations people as ‘primitive’ is racist and disgusting. News Ltd should fire him.”
Bolt called Bowen’s gesture “mindless drivel” and “race-based tribalism with its destructive crusade against oil and gas.”
“Everyone in Australia undoubtedly has connections with indigenous peoples somewhere on the planet, going back thousands of years,” he argued.
‘Is Bowen really demanding ‘profound’ respect for the ‘indigenous knowledge’ of every Celt from England, every Saxon from Germany, every Gaul from France, or every Roman from central Italy?
Or are the ‘indigenous people’ he flatters only people who are not white?
‘In fact, Bowen’s short sermon is not only racist but also anti-science, making him a threat to Australia.’
Bolt argued that indigenous people in Europe and Asia had ‘left their indigenous knowledge behind because they had used science to find better ways to live, without dying early and poor’.