Manila, Philippines: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has apologised for remarks he made about “dicks” and phone radiation during “light-hearted banter” with Energy Minister Chris Bowen during climate talks in Turkey last week.
Asked whether he regretted the comments, which were picked up by cameras, Albanese said: “Of course I regret that”.
“I apologise. This was a private conversation, we thought, between two friends having a bit of light-hearted banter,” he said in Manila on Sunday, where he announced the signing of a new defence agreement with the Philippines.
“That happens. No one was hurt or harmed. We weren’t having private banter that criticised anyone.”
The exchange between Albanese and Bowen was picked up with a hot mic on Friday as the pair chatted while waiting to start a roundtable discussion about business investment at this year’s COP31 climate conference in the Turkish town of Antalya.
According to the footage, which started recording before Albanese and Bowen made their official remarks, the prime minister told Bowen that he should store his phone away from his heart because “it can interfere with your rhythm”.
The climate change minister then said he was more conscious of putting his phone in his pants pocket. The prime minister asked: “Because of your dick?”
Bowen agreed that it was “because of my dick”. “Arguably more important than the heart,” he said, and both men laughed.
Albanese’s apology on Sunday went a step further than the statement issued by his office on Friday, which said: “They were having a joke in between meetings.”
Coalition defence spokesman James Paterson said the incident was a bad look.
“Locker room talk like that has a time and place, and it’s not at international summits when you’re the prime minister of Australia,” he said.
The Prime Minister has on several occasions been criticised for being too slow or reluctant to apologise over such incidents.
He apologised in July this year after he was asked whether he would “marry, shag or date” pop star Kylie Minogue , and he said “all of the above.”
However, he did not explicitly say sorry for another exchange, in which he referred to the “couple of melons” that Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi brought him as a gift during her visit to Australia, and the podcast host said she “came in looking like Pamela Anderson.”
Albanese will meet with Takaichi on the sidelines of ASEAN this week.
He also gave an apology criticised as half-hearted after labelling former Australian of the Year Grace Tame “difficult” during a word association game this year.
“If there was any misinterpretation, then I certainly apologise,” he said, claiming that he meant to say she’d had a difficult life.
Albanese left Turkey for the Philippines on Friday to attend the ASEAN summit.
Bowen stayed in Antalya to lead climate negotiations until the end of next week.
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