Daily Telegraph publishes what many would regard as a racist slur aimed at Penny Wong as mastheads celebrate Labor election loss

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The Coalition victory has been celebrated across Rupert Murdoch’s mastheads with uniformly jubilant headlines, hailing the “miracle man” Scott Morrison as a messiah at the footy with a beer in hand.

The Australian portrayed the returned prime minister in biblical terms as the “Messiah from The Shire” and a leader waving to “the faithful” at his “beloved” Cronulla Sharks.

“[Bill] Shorten and [Chris] Bowen’s Robin Hood economics of redistribution failed because millions of Australians aspire to succeed,” columnist Janet Albrechtsen said inside. “Even those stuck on welfare understand that mocking the rich as ‘the top end of town’ is stupid economics – their taxes sustain the social welfare state.”

The biblical overtones began in News Corp’s Sunday papers, which consistently adopted Morrison’s claim in his election speech that he had performed a miracle by beating Bill Shorten.

The Daily Telegraph’s “ScoMo’s Blue Wave” also pictured Morrison at the football dressed in blue, the colour of both the Sharks and the Liberal party.

Labor’s “tax grab” would not be happening now, the Tele assured its readers inside, but Morrison’s tax cuts would.

On page six there was what many would regard as a racist slur aimed at Labor frontbencher Penny Wong with a headline asking: “How did it all go Wong for Penny?”

It’s not the first time the Tele has made the play on her name. A similar headline last year read: “Treasury says Labor in Wong on Budget papers”.

chris murphy (@chrismurphys) So when Roseanne makes a racist comment her show is sacked even in the USA but when Murdoch makes a racist mockery of the Chinese surname of a Labor Senator in his Daily Telegraph today it’s a headline and #bigotry is fun? Turnbull silent for #MurdochPM #auspol pic.twitter.com/aJPqIaaMct

The article accused Wong of “petulant behaviour during the campaign” and of “seething” with anger when she appeared on the election coverage on the ABC.

In Victoria the Herald Sun subverted the historic ALP phrase “true believers” into the headline “Scomo’s True Believers” beside a photo of the PM in trademark cap waving a Sharks scarf above his head. “PM says ‘have a go’ Aussies powered his victory”.

Scomo’s “wave of triumph” continued in Queensland where the Courier Mail had campaigned hard for a return of the Coalition.

“We consistently set the agenda on behalf of readers, such as peeling back the insulting audacity of Greens veteran Bob Brown and his foolhardy, ‘almond milk’ convoy from the grungy coffee shops of Fitzroy to the unforgiving show grounds of Clermont,” the Courier Mail said in its editorial.

The Daily Telegraph (@dailytelegraph) There’s no denying ScoMo earned his right to lead, writes @mirandadevine https://t.co/p2F5ijWyZL

Across the tabloids columnist Miranda Devine was on hand to push the idea that Australia had “fallen in love” with the PM’s wife, Jenny, a “down-to-earth” nurse who had married young and didn’t wear a lot of make up.

Was she comparing her to Chloe Shorten – whom she has described as a “photogenic presence on the campaign trail”?

“Australia really did fall in love with Jenny as she joined the election campaign disarming locals with her easy smile, her friendly manner and total lack of artifice,” Devine wrote. “Women, especially, warmed to her.”