‘No one was hurt’: Albanese responds after his crude ‘hot mic’ incident

Detailed summary

The PM and his energy minister were clearly unaware the microphone was on when they joked about where they keep their mobile phones.

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, which was captured by a hot mic 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.”

Opening of the article, excerpted from The Sydney Morning Herald. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.