• Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has launched a campaign calling for a royal commission into media diversity in Australia, focusing on the influence of News Corp.
• A petition calling on the House of Representatives to support a royal commission has garnered nearly 90,000 signatures over the weekend.
• Despite the petition’s popularity, there’s no number of signatures that would force the Australian Parliament to debate the petition.
• Visit Business Insider Australia’s homepage for more stories.

Since leaving office, Kevin Rudd has been vocal about his criticisms of the influence of News Corp Australia on Australian politics — and now he’s trying to do something about it.

On Saturday, Rudd launched a petition calling on the Australian Federal Government’s House of Representatives to support the establishment of a Royal Commission into media diversity in Australia.

Accompanying the petition, the former prime minister also posted a video to social media where he made the case for the investigation, zeroing in on the impact of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire in Australia.

“I’m launching an official petition to the Australian Parliament, calling on Parliament to establish a Royal Commission into the abuse of media monopoly in Australia,” he said “And in particular by the Murdoch media and to make recommendations to maximise media diversity ownership for the future lifeblood of our democratic system.”

In the video, Rudd gives three reasons why he considers News Corp an “arrogant cancer on democracy”: News Corp’s large number of print papers, the company’s consistent endorsement of the Coalition at elections and their campaigning against specific policies like the National Broadband Network.

Since launching over the weekend, the petition has more than 87,000 signatures.

On Sunday, Rudd posted another video claiming that some were having difficulties signing the petition due to the sheer amount of traffic — including his wife, Thérèse.

“A particular shoutout to all those folks who’ve been trying to register their names but have been blocked by the Parliament House IT system. It seems the Parliament House bots have regarded some of you as bots and have refused to allow you to sign,” he said.

Unlike in some other countries, there is no number of signatures that forces Parliament to debate a petition. The Government has not commented on the petition.

The petition closes at 11.59 p.m. on November 4, 2020.

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