Job for Australian ex-PM fuels fears over direction of Murdoch media empire under son Lachlan

Dismay as mogul's successor nominates Tony Abbott, a climate change sceptic, to board of Fox Corporation

Six years ago the former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott argued global warming may benefit populations, noting that more people died from cold weather than heatwaves.

The speech in London, to climate-sceptic thinktank the Global Warming Policy Foundation, is now under renewed scrutiny after it was announced on Friday that he had been nominated to join the board of the Fox Corporation, part of the Murdoch family's global media empire.