Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has signalled he will not meet with Rupert Murdoch, breaking a long tradition of Australian political leaders who felt compelled to pay court to the media proprietor who has used his company's influence in Australian, British and US politics for decades.

7.30 has been told that Mr Shorten was given an open invitation to meet with Mr Murdoch whenever he was in the United States.

But Mr Murdoch was politely told that would not be necessary as Mr Shorten would deal with the Australian representatives of the company.

"I will deal with the Australian representatives of every media company," Mr Shorten told 7.30.

"News Limited (sic) and Mr Murdoch shouldn't take that as any view on him in particular.

"I'll deal with their local management just as I deal with the local management of the ABC.

"But my real conversation is not with the rich and powerful in this country.

"I will work with business, I will work with unions, but no sector or interest group will own me and own my party."

Murdoch media 'a cancer on democracy': Rudd

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp has been repeatedly attacked by Kevin Rudd. ( AP: Evan Agostini )

The role of the News Corp newspapers in Australian politics — and in more recent times, the Sky television network — have long been particularly contentious for the Australian Labor Party.

Most recently, former prime minister Kevin Rudd called for a royal commission into the abuse of media power in Australia, repeatedly attacking News Corp for its reporting in 2007 and 2013, which he said was driven in part by ideology and partly by a commercially driven desire to destroy Labor's proposed National Broadband Network.

"In Australia, as in the US and the UK, the Murdoch media don't behave as a news organisation, but as a political party in full pursuit of their commercial and hard-right ideological interests in coalition with the major conservative party of the day," Mr Rudd wrote earlier this month in Nine media.

"That's why the Murdoch media has become such a cancer on the wider cause of democracy.

"We often ponder why democracy has been in such a mess across the Anglosphere. While Murdoch cannot be blamed for the lot, he's been a big part of the equation.

"By contrast, the Canadian democracy has been in reasonable shape. Interesting that there is negligible Murdoch presence there."

Media ownership 'not something I can change'

Bill Shorten says voters will decide how they vote based on the ideas put forward. ( ABC News: Nicole Hegarty )

During last week's bus trip through Queensland, Mr Shorten was asked about the role of the media in politics and Mr Rudd's call for a royal commission.

"I worry about the things I can change and I don't worry about the things I can't change," he told 7.30.

"Who owns a particular newspaper — that's not something I can change or affect.

"Some elements of the media are very aggressive critics of Labor but I'm not going to whinge about that.

"When you're on the Labor side, the working people's side, you don't own the big banks, you don't own the big private health insurers and you don't own the big media, so that's sort of a fact of life.

"But the more the conservative elements in the media shout, the less people listen.

"Australians are smart, Queenslanders are smart, they can work it out.

"A lot of communities and people feel that they don't have control, and they're not sure that their vote makes a difference.

"What I want to do is put forward a series of ideas, which we are doing, and let people decide on the power of the ideas."

Some positive coverage

The Labor party has promised to help develop a hydrogen gas industry in Queensland. ( ABC News: Lexy Hamilton-Smith )

A persistent recent run of anti-Labor stories in News Corp papers — centred on its proposals to change the treatment of negative gearing and capital gains on investment housing and dividend imputation rules — was briefly interrupted during Mr Shorten's Queensland bus tour by positive coverage of an $1 billion proposal by Labor to develop an hydrogen gas industry based in Gladstone.

"We're happy that the Queensland Courier Mail gave it such a prominent run," Mr Shorten told 7.30.

"But when it comes down to it, I think there's a broader issue in the question.

"Some elements of the media don't like Labor, they're not convinced on our policies about equality, not convinced we need better hospitals not bigger multinationals."

A News Corp spokesman said they had nothing to add to the story.