{"id":852559,"date":"2026-08-12T12:10:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T12:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/852559\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T12:10:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T12:10:14","slug":"japanese-ambassador-to-australia-downplays-albanese-melon-gaffe-as-taylor-claims-pm-has-stuffed-up-australian-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/852559\/","title":{"rendered":"Japanese ambassador to Australia downplays Albanese melon gaffe as Taylor claims PM has \u2018stuffed up\u2019 | Australian politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Japanese ambassador has downplayed Anthony Albanese\u2019s comments about a gift of melons from Sanae Takaichi, saying Tokyo had been reassured by the Australian government that the prime minister \u201cdid not make the comments in the way that has been reported\u201d.<\/p>\n

While the Coalition continued to raise outrage over Albanese\u2019s comments to the Bush Deep podcast, including seeking to have federal police investigate the alleged leaking of a diplomatic cable to a newspaper, the Japanese government appeared to be uninterested in making a diplomatic incident out of the much-maligned comments.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been informed by the Australian side that Prime Minister Albanese did not make the comments in the way that has been reported,\u201d said Kazuhiro Suzuki, the Japanese ambassador to Australia, in a statement on Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

The podcast comments \u2013 being referred to as \u201cmelon-gate\u201d in Parliament House<\/a> \u2013 dominated federal politics for another day on Wednesday, with Albanese maintaining he had nothing to apologise for.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe take our relationships seriously, including our regular engagement with Japan. And that is why we will always put the national interest first and we continue to do so,\u201d Albanese told parliament.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe prime minister of Japan is a good friend of Australia \u2026 She was a welcome guest here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

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

The opposition leader, Angus Taylor, again demanded the prime minister apologise, claiming he had \u201cstuffed up\u201d. The senior shadow ministers Ted O\u2019Brien and James Paterson demanded the Australian federal police investigate the apparent leaking of a diplomatic cable to The Australian newspaper, suggesting officers check whether the prime minister\u2019s office was involved.<\/p>\n

The AFP was contacted for comment and has not confirmed if it will investigate the matter.<\/p>\n

The diplomatic cable was reportedly sent in July, days after the podcast, with Japan\u2019s government saying there had been \u201csensationalised reporting in the Australian media\u201d and that Tokyo believed there was no \u201cill intention\u201d in Albanese\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n

After that development, the Coalition shifted to questioning how the document became public, claiming its publication was an \u201capparent unlawful disclosure of confidential correspondence from the government of Japan\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a serious matter. It is important that our closest allies have confidence of when they share confidential correspondence with us that it will not find its way in the media,\u201d Paterson said.<\/p>\n

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But asked about whether the cable proved Japan was not worried about Albanese\u2019s actions, O\u2019Brien responded: \u201cI won\u2019t be commenting on how Tokyo interprets this entire saga.\u201d<\/p>\n

Labor ministers again lined up to defend Albanese on Wednesday. The housing minister, Clare O\u2019Neil, called the Coalition\u2019s AFP referral a \u201csilly political stunt\u201d, claiming the opposition had \u201ccompletely lost the plot\u201d. The education minister, Jason Clare, called it \u201crubbish\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that the Liberal party seem to be distracted by this, I think, shows they\u2019re not fit to govern here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Albanese also shrugged off the Coalition concerns, saying the AFP was independent and would investigate whatever it deemed appropriate.<\/p>\n

Japan\u2019s government refrained from public comments on the issue until Wednesday, when its current ambassador to Australia released a statement not raising any further issue with Albanese\u2019s conduct.<\/p>\n

Suzuki noted Takaichi had visited Australia in May \u2013 shortly before the interview in question \u2013 and had been hosted for dinner by Albanese \u201cin a very relaxed atmosphere, and we believe it helped build a personal trust relationship between the two leaders\u201d.<\/p>\n

The melon comments resurfaced as a political issue after The Australian ran a comment piece on Monday from the former Japanese ambassador Shingo Yamagami, who left his post in 2023, who claimed Albanese had insulted Takaichi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Japanese ambassador has downplayed Anthony Albanese\u2019s comments about a gift of melons from Sanae Takaichi, saying Tokyo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":852560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-852559","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\/852559","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=852559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/852560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=852559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=852559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=852559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}