Stephen Conroy, the communications minister, openly accused the Sydney Daily Telegraph of trying to force an early election and to bring down Gillard's minority government (although his accusations that the Telegraph favour regime change pre-date the present crisis).

BBC: Murdoch in Australia: The fallout

The Daily Telegraph, a Sydney tabloid, meanwhile, has been running a daily column entitled The Kiwi Chokedown.

BBC: Rugby World Cup: Do fans support their own hemisphere?

So wrote Martin Johnson about Bill Frindall and the cricket statistician fraternity in the Daily Telegraph, after England's Andrew Strauss played all around a Shane Warne delivery in the fifth Ashes Test in Sydney in January 2007, a dismissal which saw the leg-spinner become the first bowler to take 700 Test wickets in history.

BBC: Remembering the Bearded Wonder

"My goal now is the 2007 World Cup, " McGrath told Sydney's Daily Telegraph.

BBC: Glenn McGrath is setting his sights on 600 Test wickets