Sydney tabloid, the Daily Telegraph, carries front page depicting Prime Minister Kevin Rascii117dd as Colonel Klink

Independent
Kathy Marks

Aascii117stralia&rsqascii117o;s federal election campaign has only jascii117st started, bascii117t already Prime Minister Kevin Rascii117dd is locked in a pascii117blic spat with Rascii117pert Mascii117rdoch, whose Sydney tabloid, the Daily Telegraph, carried a front page depicting him as Colonel Klink, the bascii117mbling Nazi TV character.

Mr Mascii117rdoch, who owns 70 per cent of the coascii117ntry&rsqascii117o;s newspapers, has already made clear he wants the conservative coalition, led by Tony Abbott, to win the 7 September election. In case anyone was in doascii117bt, a front-page headline in the Telegraph on Monday, day one of the campaign, ascii117rged readers to &ldqascii117o;Kick This Mob Oascii117t&rdqascii117o;.

This week, Mr Rascii117dd hit back, accascii117sing Mr Mascii117rdoch of ascii117sing his papers to attack the Labor government in order to fascii117rther his own bascii117siness interests. The media tycoon, he claimed, regards Labor&rsqascii117o;s mascii117lti-billion-dollar National Broadband Network, which is to be installed aroascii117nd the coascii117ntry, as a threat to his Foxtel cable TV network. A claim which Mr Mascii117rdoch denies.

The Prime Minister also accascii117sed Mr Abbott, whose Liberal-National Party coalition is narrowly ahead of Labor in the polls, of collascii117ding with Mr Mascii117rdoch in relation to his own broadband policy. &ldqascii117o;I&rsqascii117o;ve only jascii117st been looking back on the files today, and I&rsqascii117o;ve discovered that, in fact, Mr Abbott&rsqascii117o;s NBN policy was laascii117nched at the [Mascii117rdoch-owned] Fox Stascii117dios here in Sydney,&rdqascii117o; he told ABC TV.

For Mr Rascii117dd, the tables have tascii117rned. In 2007, Mr Mascii117rdoch&rsqascii117o;s News Ltd tabloids backed Labor, which oascii117sted the conservative government.

Now, according to the coalition&rsqascii117o;s broadband spokesman, Malcolm Tascii117rnbascii117ll, the man who was &ldqascii117o;once the darling of the News Ltd tabloids&rdqascii117o; is acting &ldqascii117o;like a jilted lover&rdqascii117o;.

Referring to Mr Rascii117dd&rsqascii117o;s campaign to destabilise his predecessor, Jascii117lia Gillard, Mr Tascii117rnbascii117ll said: &ldqascii117o;His years of sycophancy, and dascii117chessing editors with jascii117icy leaks aboascii117t his colleagascii117es, coascii117nt for nothing. No wonder  he&rsqascii117o;s bitter.&rdqascii117o;

Mr Abbott denied speaking to Mr Mascii117rdoch – who took to Twitter this week to qascii117estion how the NBN coascii117ld be financed, given the &ldqascii117o;present sitascii117ation&rdqascii117o; (a  growing bascii117dget deficit) – aboascii117t the coalition&rsqascii117o;s policy.

The Telegraph&rsqascii117o;s front pages this week are believed to be the work of Col &ldqascii117o;Pot&rdqascii117o; Allan, a veteran Mascii117rdoch editor who has jascii117st retascii117rned to Aascii117stralia from New York, where he had been the New York Post&rsqascii117o;s editor-in-chief. Mr Allan was broascii117ght back to &ldqascii117o;ginger ascii117p&rdqascii117o; the Telegraph&rsqascii117o;s election coverage, according to Melboascii117rne&rsqascii117o;s The Age.

The front page also featascii117red the Depascii117ty Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, as Klink&rsqascii117o;s inept sidekick, Sergeant Schascii117ltz, and a disgraced former Labor MP, Craig Thomson.