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 mogul Rupert Murdoch is locked in a battle with three of his children after deciding to change the terms of his family trust, transferring the bulk of his empire to his eldest son and News Corp chairman Lachlan Murdoch.
His three older siblings, James, Elisabeth and Prudence, are due to appear in court over the matter in September.
James resigned from News Corp’s board in 2020, citing strategic decisions and editorial content he disagreed with.
On Thursday, Bolt lashed out at Murdoch’s youngest son, saying: “James could sack me if he took over, but he wouldn’t need to.
“I wouldn’t be the only one who wouldn’t 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 that?”
Climate and Energy Minister Chris Bowen is pictured at the National Press Club last week.
Lachlan Murdoch could inherit the bulk of News Corp once 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: “Why do you care? Oh, that’s right, because it catches your attention.”
Another wrote: “Very well, what a cabinet minister should be doing, jumping straight into the gutter.”
But not everyone was critical; some expressed enthusiasm at the idea that Bolt might 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 appointment comes after years of clashes between the two.
Last week, Bolt wrote a scathing column about Bowen in News Corp newspapers, calling the minister a “moron” and a “liar” for comments he made at the National Press Club.
Mr Bowen had said: “Open denial of climate change is now less fashionable in public debate than it was ten or fifteen years ago.”
“Andrew Bolt still does it, but most people don’t bother.”
The conservative commentator argued that he does not deny climate change, he simply does not believe the situation is as “catastrophic” as Bowen claims.
Bolt has consistently attacked Bowen’s plans to transition from fossil fuels to wind and solar farms, labelling him as someone in “total denial” who “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 “menace to Australia”.
Pictured is Rupert Murdoch, centre, with his two sons Lachlan, left, and James, right.
In return, Bowen called for Bolt to be sacked for saying the energy minister was “being primitive” by opening a speech in Dubai with a modified Acknowledgement of Country.
The minister said Bolt had crossed a line and called the comment “racist and disgusting”.
“Like most Australians, I tend to ignore Andrew Bolt,” Bowen wrote.
“But this time I won’t. His attack on indigenous peoples by calling them ‘primitive’ is racist and disgusting. News Ltd should sack him.”
Bolt called Bowen’s move “stupid posturing” and “race-based tribalism with its ruinous crusade against oil and gas.”
“Surely all of us in Australia have been linked to some indigenous people somewhere on the planet for ‘millennia’,” he argued.
«Does Bowen seriously demand a “deep” respect for the “indigenous knowledge” of every Celt in England, every Saxon in Germany, every Gaul in France, or every Roman in central Italy?
“Or are the ‘indigenous people’ he flatters just non-white people?
‘In fact, Bowen’s little sermon is not only racist but also anti-scientific, making him a threat to Australia.’
Bolt argued that indigenous peoples in Europe and Asia had “left their indigenous knowledge behind because they used science to find better ways to live without dying early and poorly.”