Condemnation of the PM began with the ‘electronic graffiti’ of social media and quickly spread to both left and right sides of the mainstream media

When Tony Abbott inflamed the Prince Philip issue by labelling the criticism on social media as “electronic graffiti”, he could not have imagined that the graffiti would spread to become wallpaper in the mainstream media as well.



Apart from the odd opinion piece from the Australian Monarchist League, there is widespread condemnation of the move across the local media, from the left to the right, from News Corp through Fairfax Media and the ABC. The international press is laughing at us too.

Hours after his Australian newspaper empire condemned the knighthood of Prince Philip, Rupert Murdoch declared on Twitter that the surprise move was “a joke and an embarrassment”.

“Abbott knighthood a joke and embarrassment,” he posted. “Time to scrap all honours everywhere, including UK.”

Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) @sprocket___ Abbott knighthood a joke and embarrassment. Time to scrap all honours everywhere, including UK.

Finally there was a tweet from @rupertmurdoch many on social media felt they could agree with.

The Australian’s conservative political editor and Abbott supporter Dennis Shanahan wrote on Tuesday that Abbott was blind to the damage to his leadership that the decision had caused.

“As prime minister, Abbott cannot say he is speaking for all Australians — as he said he would when he was elected — when as leader of the nation he awards Australia’s now highest honour to a British royal, no matter how deserving,” he wrote.

While it is remarkable for the Australian to go so hard on the Liberal prime minister, a more damaging report was the one on primetime television on Monday night, from Nine’s political editor Laurie Oakes.

Oakes has a TV audience of over a million, and his report has already been shared more than 30,000 times on Facebook. Oakes said many Liberals were despairing of the decision which looks like the PM is “holding a big finger up to Australians and saying I don’t care what you think”.

Using words like “nuts” and “stupid” to describe Abbott, Oakes had a banner superimposed on the screen below him which said “Jump the Shark”. “If the PM was a TV show you’d say he jumped the shark with this decision,” Oakes said in his editorial.

The Courier-Mail, under the creative editorship of Christopher Dore, didn’t disappoint with a front page on Tuesday that borrowed the newspaper’s old masthead, crossed out the date and mocked the decision: “Jolly Odd Show Tony: Abbott’s right royal Australia Day insult”.

Under the headline “PM brushes local heroes to Knight Duke of Hazard”, the Courier’s front page story said: “The prime minister has stunned the nation and infuriated his colleagues by using Australia Day to knight Britain’s gaffe-prone Duke of Edinburgh.”

Across the News Corp tabloids it was the same. The Herald Sun’s Shaun Carney wrote: “The message in his appointment was that of the 23m Australians who rose to celebrate Australia Day, none bar Air Chief Marshal Houston had contributed to Australia as much as Prince Philip. That is more than a joke. It is an insult.”

Fairfax columnist John Birmingham said if it was designed as a political distraction it was a “masterstroke”.

“It’s almost as though Toned Abs did it to distract attention from the drunken triumphalism of white Australia twerking in the face of the continent’s original peoples. And you wonder why he’s been such a popular and successful leader?”

A poll on ABC opinion website the Drum asks: “Do you approve of Prince Philip being awarded an Australian knighthood?”. The answer is No – from a resounding 93%.

If you need to read some support for Abbott’s decision we can point you to one Scott Coleman of the Australian Monarchists League, who is swimming against the tide.

“As the husband of the Queen of Australia, Prince Philip has been a constant source of strength and support, and together they have served the people of Australia with dignity, compassion and good humour for more than 62 years. This is one of the reasons why support for a republic remains at record lows (particularly among the young) and why the royal family’s popularity is undiminished.”