{"id":851703,"date":"2026-08-11T18:26:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T18:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/851703\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T18:26:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T18:26:13","slug":"australias-prime-minister-refuses-to-apologise-to-japanese-counterpart-over-melon-gaffe-australian-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/851703\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia\u2019s prime minister refuses to apologise to Japanese counterpart over melon gaffe | Australian politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese<\/a>, has rejected calls to apologise to Japan\u2019s prime minister over a joke he made about melons on a satirical podcast, amid a media frenzy and accusations of sexual innuendo.<\/p>\n

Government MPs have defended the prime minister as criticism mounted over last month\u2019s remarks, branded by the Coalition<\/a> opposition as \u201cgrubby\u201d. The assistant minister Pat Gorman told media: \u201cI don\u2019t know why we\u2019re still talking about this.\u201d<\/p>\n

During an interview on the comedy podcast Bush Deep in early July, Albanese spoke about Japan\u2019s leader, Sanae Takaichi<\/a>, giving him a gift of Japanese melons.<\/p>\n

Discussing the present, he appeared to make hand gestures in front of his chest, saying \u201cshe brought two, as you do\u201d. Host Nikki Osborne joked: \u201cShe came in looking like Pamela Anderson.\u201d<\/p>\n

Albanese had not previously addressed the comments, but in parliament\u2019s question time on Tuesday, was asked by the opposition whether he would apologise. In her question, the Liberal MP Mary Aldred described Albanese\u2019s comments as \u201cfoul-mouthed, classless\u201d and \u201cdisrespectful behaviour\u201d.<\/p>\n

Albanese responded: \u201cI reject the assertion in the question.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued, \u201cAustralia and Japan<\/a> have never been closer or more strategically aligned. And my government has taken our special strategic partnership to new heights,\u201d noting recent economic, strategic and security collaborations between the countries.<\/p>\n

During his answer, one Liberal MP interjected: \u201cWhy didn\u2019t you say that in the podcast?\u201d<\/p>\n

Aldred later asked again whether Albanese would apologise, to which he again noted various meetings with Takaichi and the close relationship between Japan and Australia.<\/p>\n

The melon comments have since been canvassed regularly by media outlets including The Australian, the West Australian and the Australian Financial Review. But it resurfaced as a political issue after The Australian ran a comment piece on Monday from the former Japanese ambassador Shingo Yamagami, who claimed Albanese had insulted Takaichi.<\/p>\n

In an op-ed titled \u201csexist melon joke was not only ungracious, it betrayed the close bond of our two nations\u201d, Yamagami \u2013 who left his post in 2023 and previously had a less-than-warm relationship with some in Labor \u2013 called out \u201ccrude jokes\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Australian reported on Tuesday that Japan\u2019s government had sent a diplomatic cable to Australia in July, days after the podcast originally aired, claiming there had been \u201csensationalised reporting in the Australian media\u201d and saying they detected no \u201cill intention\u201d in Albanese\u2019s statement.<\/p>\n

The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, on Monday demanded Albanese apologise, while his deputy, Jane Hume, claimed the melon comments were \u201cgrubby\u201d and \u201cbeneath the office of the prime minister\u201d.<\/p>\n

Shiro Armstrong, the director of the Australia-Japan Research Centre at the Australian National University, told Radio National last week there had been \u201cno mention of [Albanese\u2019s comments] in Japan until weeks later\u201d, calling it a \u201cnon-issue\u201d in the country.<\/p>\n

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Yamagami told News24 on Tuesday that Albanese should consider visiting Japan this year to meet Takaichi, claiming the issue was a topic of debate in his country.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to move on, but I think we need to show mutual respect to each other,\u201d Yamagami said.<\/p>\n

Labor MPs have closed ranks around Albanese, defending the prime minister and deflecting questions about his remarks.<\/p>\n

Asked whether an apology was needed, Gorman said: \u201cThere is no need for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The resources minister, Madeleine King, referred to the Japanese cable saying there had been \u201csensationalised reporting\u201d, and claimed Albanese\u2019s comments had been \u201cmischaracterised\u201d.<\/p>\n

The agriculture minister, Julie Collins, said Albanese had rejected \u201cthe type of inference that you\u2019re applying\u201d while the environment minister, Murray Watt, said \u201csome media interpretations of that episode of that podcast have been misinterpreted\u201d.<\/p>\n

The same podcast interview<\/a> earlier attracted controversy after Albanese nominated singer Kylie Minogue while playing a game of \u201cshag, marry, date\u201d<\/a> with Osborne. After the podcast, Albanese said he apologised \u201cunequivocally\u201d for those comments.<\/p>\n

The host later said attention on the game had been a \u201cmoment taken out of context\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has rejected calls to apologise to Japan\u2019s prime minister over a joke…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":851704,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-851703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=851703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/851704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}