A senior minister describes the controversial \u201cmelongate\u201d like this: \u201cIt\u2019s a noise no one wants to\u00a0keep running.\u201d<\/p>\n
Included among the no ones is Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, whose performance on the sexually charged Bush Deep podcast last month proves a recurring embarrassment for the government.<\/p>\n
The latest flare-up was prompted by an opinion piece published on Monday by the former Japanese ambassador to Australia, Shingo Yamagami, accusing the prime minister of mocking his Japanese counterpart and denigrating her gift of two Shizuoka crown melons. \u201cIt is,\u201d he wrote, \u201cappalling to note the ignorance about what this gift means.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yamagami was a controversial ambassador who had his term cut short when his superiors in Tokyo realised his antipathy to the Albanese government wasn\u2019t helpful to the relationship.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a mate of Tony Abbott\u2019s,\u201d was a\u00a0dismissive comment from a government insider. Unfortunately for Albanese, this does nothing to erase the impression most who have viewed the podcast got from the prime minister\u2019s hand gestures and the perceived double entendre about melons and Sanae Takaichi\u2019s breasts.<\/p>\n
Albanese insists this is a misinterpretation and he has nothing to apologise for. In that, he has been strongly supported by the most senior women in the cabinet: Penny Wong, Katy Gallagher and Tanya Plibersek, as well as\u00a0other female ministers.<\/p>\n
Earlier, the podcast generated controversy when Albanese was forced to \u201cunequivocally apologise\u201d for his participation in a \u201cshag, marry, date\u201d game where he chose Kylie Minogue for all three categories.<\/p>\n
The \u201cmelons\u201d remark and gesture were excluded from this contrition. Indeed, it was barely noticed before the former ambassador called for an apology and for more respect for Takaichi in her efforts to breathe new life into the security Quad arrangement between the United States, India, Australia and Japan.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Yamagami did a live cross from Tokyo to News24, in which he said his remarks were neither partisan nor political.<\/p>\n
\u201cSimply, this is a matter of decorum, diplomatic propriety and mutual respect,\u201d he said. \u201cIn Australia or in Japan or anywhere else for that matter, you don\u2019t make a mockery of gifts from your friends, which are meticulously prepared and kindly presented.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yamagami suggested Albanese should make an official return visit to Japan, something the prime minister has not done this term.<\/p>\n
The embattled opposition quickly turned the melons controversy into an attack \u2026 The lesson for Albanese has to be, surely, that despite the media strategy of doing podcasts with a wide spectrum of audiences and demographics, he is still the prime minister and not some smutty schoolboy.<\/p>\n
The opinion piece\u2019s publication in The Australian coincided with the latest Newspoll in the paper, in which Labor and One Nation both dropped a point to a primary vote of 29\u00a0each and the Coalition dropped a point to a\u00a0disastrous 18 per cent.<\/p>\n
The embattled opposition quickly turned the melons controversy into an attack on Albanese\u2019s character.<\/p>\n
There is a view, bolstered by the Newspoll, that the prime minister is particularly vulnerable. Satisfaction with his performance is in the negative by 22 points, compared with Angus Taylor on minus 12 and Pauline Hanson on minus three.<\/p>\n
Taylor twice attempted to suspend standing orders to debate the issue, calling for the House to condemn Albanese for his disrespectful remarks, refusal to apologise and for potentially breaking the law for releasing classified intergovernmental communications.<\/p>\n
In a display of hollow bravado, the opposition leader even gave Albanese a 1.30pm deadline on Wednesday to make a statement to the House. The government\u2019s overwhelming numbers killed off this performative protest.<\/p>\n
The Liberals\u2019 Mary Aldred began the Question Time attacks, accusing the prime minister of making \u201ca series of foul-mouthed, classless comments about women\u201d and asking Albanese to apologise.<\/p>\n
He rejected \u201cthe assertion\u201d in the question and said Australia and Japan \u201chave never been closer or more strategically aligned\u201d. In light of recent agreements and defence purchases, he added, his government \u201chas taken our special strategic partnership to new heights\u201d.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, correspondence between the Japanese and Australian governments over the July Kumamoto earthquake, released to Seven News and The Australian to rebut claims the podcast remarks were taken as an insult, do reveal Tokyo had noticed them and not all that kindly.<\/p>\n
According to The Australian, the Japanese government \u201cnoted sensationalised reporting\u201d in the media but said it would take \u201cno action\u201d, so the media could move on. It noted there was no \u201cill intention\u201d in Albanese\u2019s remarks.<\/p>\n
Seven\u2019s report made no mention of the Japanese embassy taking no action to smooth over matters and, according to a government source, this was a more reliable angle.<\/p>\n
Both media outlets reported Prime Minister Takaichi \u201cexpressing heartfelt gratitude for Australia\u2019s profound friendship following the recent earthquake\u201d.<\/p>\n
A reporter from one of Japan\u2019s biggest newspapers, The Asahi Shimbun, was in the press gallery as the opposition pursued Albanese. He filed a report on the debate and says there is speculation in Tokyo that the former ambassador, Yamagami, had the support of the Takaichi government in expressing his disappointment with Albanese.<\/p>\n
The lesson for Albanese has to be, surely, that despite the media strategy of doing podcasts with a wide spectrum of audiences and demographics, he is still the prime minister and not some smutty schoolboy.<\/p>\n
Analysis in what one senior staffer calls\u00a0the \u201chostile media\u201d compared Labor\u2019s 29 per cent primary vote with the grim days of Julia Gillard 15 years ago. Indeed, if the same precepts applied today, Albanese and the government would be in dire straits.<\/p>\n
When Gillard was in power, the loss of support for Labor mostly flowed to the Coalition. The Liberals and the Nationals are a long way from the 48 per cent primary vote they were achieving in Newspoll in September 2011.<\/p>\n
The times have changed dramatically.<\/p>\n
At the last election Labor won 62.7 per cent of the seats with 34.6 per cent of the primary vote. That 94-seat result is the highest number of seats ever won by a single party since Federation.<\/p>\n
The other polls this week broadly confirm Newspoll\u2019s results and show we have a new three-way contest with the Liberals trailing One Nation.<\/p>\n
This appears to be a structural shift, which for the time being shields Albanese from the sort of internal stirrings predecessors who recorded similar poor results would have faced.<\/p>\n
That is not happening because, as one seasoned Labor campaigner says: \u201cAlbanese has been bitten on the bum by a rainbow.\u201d He is not all that flash, but he is lucky his opponents are much worse.<\/p>\n
The Liberals are counting on Taylor developing policies and having a program ready to sell when voters start paying attention closer to the next election. This is the plan the Liberals\u2019 new federal director, Lincoln Folo, outlined as their best chance at a briefing to MPs during the week.<\/p>\n
No one, least of all Albanese and the government, can get away from Bill Clinton\u2019s campaign truism: \u201cIt\u2019s the economy, stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n
Treasurer Jim Chalmers breathed a sigh of relief when the Reserve Bank\u2019s Monetary Policy Board kept interest rates on hold at 4.35\u00a0per cent this week. The treasurer pointed out inflation had come in substantially lower than the Reserve Bank or the Treasury had forecast. This was the second meeting of the board since the budget, and rates on both occasions were held steady.<\/p>\n
To refute the narrative that the government is tanking the economy and the housing market, the treasurer pointed out that Australia is one of only nine countries \u201cwith a AAA sovereign credit rating\u201d from all three major ratings agencies.<\/p>\n
He also said we\u2019ve \u201cgot lower gross debt than every major advanced economy\u201d.<\/p>\n
The elephant in the room, however, is United States President Donald Trump and his inability to end the conflict engulfing the Middle East.<\/p>\n
Chalmers said that \u201cfrom an economic point of view, a proper enduring end to this war cannot come soon enough\u201d.<\/p>\n
The other key marker for the government is undoubtedly housing affordability.<\/p>\n
Albanese raised eyebrows when he quoted, apparently with approval, investment commentator Scott Pape, who wrote in the Herald Sun: \u201cAverage house prices have increased by more than 400 per cent since 2000, partly on the back of taxpayer-funded landlord welfare.\u201d He said house prices have grown faster than workers\u2019 wages, creating \u201cthe pickle we are in\u201d.<\/p>\n
Somewhere along the way, Albanese went on, we treated houses like a share price. \u201cWe forgot what they are actually for: a house is for living in.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his answer to Angus Taylor, Albanese explained the budget\u2019s tax changes as a way to address this. The media characterised this as Albanese welcoming the fall in house prices and acknowledging his reforms were at least partly responsible.<\/p>\n
The next day Albanese sounded as if he had cold feet when the opposition pointed out that he and other ministers had benefited from negative gearing. He confused the House by saying the views he was quoting were Scott Pape\u2019s and not his.<\/p>\n
It sounded like an each-way bet or, as Paul Keating would say, running for the hills at the first whiff of grapeshot.<\/p>\n
Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock somewhat spoilt the party by warning she would not hesitate to raise interest rates again if it were necessary to rein in inflation.<\/p>\n
That wouldn\u2019t do much to help Albanese\u2019s poll ratings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A senior minister describes the controversial \u201cmelongate\u201d like this: \u201cIt\u2019s a noise no one wants to\u00a0keep running.\u201d Included…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":855721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-855720","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\/855720","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=855720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}