CANBERRA, May 10 (Xinhua) -- The leader of the opposition Australian Labor Party (ALP) Bill Shorten has accused media mogul Rupert Murdoch of running a political campaign against him.
Shorten told Fairfax Media on Friday that News Corp Australia, Murdoch's publishing company in his native country, has become a political party.
"Not everyone in News Corp is the same, but some days they should just put that they're a political party, they should put 'written and authorised' on their front page," he said.
Shorten publicly clashed with the Daily Telegraph, News Corp's Sydney newspaper, on Wednesday after it ran a story accusing the Labor leader of manipulating the story of his mother's life to suit his political campaign on its frontage with the headline "Mother of invention".
Responding to the Daily Telegraph's story on Wednesday, Shorten denounced it as a "new low", telling reporters that it was his mother's life that drove him into politics.
"I can't change what happened to my Mum. But I can change things for other people. And that's why I'm in politics. That's why I'm asking to be your prime minister," he said.
Shorten called for multinational corporations such as News Corp to face greater tax transparency in Australia.
"More transparency about what these companies pay will wake people up," Shorten said.
With the general election eight days away, local opinion polls showed that the ALP maintained a narrow lead over the incumbent Liberal-National Party coalition (LNP) on a two-party preferred basis.
