“I thought it was incredible,” Kahn said. “It was a really important statement. Even though he’s 93 years old, he took the time to come down and see what happened. He really took a genuine interest. It was deeply heartening.”

Murdoch met Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and other high-profile guests at Lachlan’s annual Christmas party in Sydney’s Bellevue Hill last week.

Albanese then told cabinet colleagues that Murdoch’s media empire was openly working to back Opposition Leader Peter Dutton. The comments followed sustained negative coverage of Albanese’s handling of antisemitism, among other issues, in News Corp titles.

News Corp staff were informed of Murdoch’s visit to The Herald and Weekly Times Southbank building on Thursday. Murdoch was born in Melbourne in 1931 and educated at Geelong Grammar.

During his visit, Murdoch met former News Corp Australia chief executive Julian Clarke, as well as recently departed columnist Terry McCrann, who was spotted arriving at lunchtime and leaving with a framed and signed cartoon several hours later.

McCrann was lured from The Age in 1987 to join the Melbourne Herald through a series of covert park bench meetings in Treasury Gardens. He stayed at the paper for nearly four decades until his formal departure this year.

Murdoch departed the building in a Range Rover alongside Sky News presenter and Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt. His niece, Herald and Weekly Times chair Penny Fowler, was accompanying the group as it left the building.

On Monday, The New York Times revealed that Rupert Murdoch had lost his bid to amend the terms of an irrevocable family trust that would have handed Lachlan total control over the family’s empire.

Nevada probate commissioner Edmund Gorman Jr deemed Murdoch’s move to have been in “bad faith”, the Times reported.