AUSTRALIA’S High Commissioner to Britain has praised the Murdoch press for the role it played in securing support for a free-trade deal that British farmers believe lacks protections for animal welfare and the environment.

George Brandis QC, a former minister under right-wing Australian premiers John Howard, Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull, also said that the only opponents of free trade were “dinosaur trade unionists” and “communist academics.”

Speaking at a fringe meeting hosted by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), a right-wing think tank, Mr Brandis objected to an audience member who criticised the media for failing to champion free trade. He said that the Murdoch press in Britain had been very supportive of the recent post-Brexit free-trade deal between Britain and Australia.

When the deal was first struck, the Morning Star, contrastingly, reported the comments of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU), an employers’ association. NFU president Minette Batters raised concerns that the deal could “undermine UK farming and merely exports the environmental and animal welfare impact of the food we eat,” and pressed for more clarity.