TONGUES are wagging in media and political circles after it emerged that the News Corp boss, Rupert Murdoch, paid a visit to Julia Gillard on Thursday.

Mr Murdoch, who usually has politicians visit him, went to Canberra for a meeting in Ms Gillard's Parliament House office.

Yesterday afternoon, Mr Murdoch met the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, in Sydney.

Mr Murdoch's visit represented a potential thaw in relations with Labor, which is at daggers drawn with his newspaper The Australian. Primarily, the visit has been linked to a series of media policy decisions about to be announced.

When Mr Murdoch was in Australia in February, he pointedly had breakfast in Sydney with Mr Abbott, but did not meet the then prime minister, Kevin Rudd. Soon after that breakfast, Mr Abbott criticised the $250 million in licence fee rebate reductions the government granted free-to-air television stations, suggesting they were bribes in return for favourable election-year coverage.