Australia's opposition Coalition has accused Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of making "disrespectful" remarks about Japan's first female prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, during an appearance on Nova's Bush Deep podcast last Friday. The row centres on comments Albanese made about an official gift of two melons that Takaichi had presented to him, which critics say reduced a diplomatic exchange to crude innuendo. The episode matters because it involves a serving prime minister's conduct towards a foreign leader and has fed a broader debate about Albanese's behaviour on podcasts.

The melons, grown in Shizuoka, were given to mark Australia reopening its market to Japanese melon imports. When the podcast host, Nikki Osborne, joked about whether Takaichi had "smuggled" the melons through customs and made a hand gesture referencing Pamela Anderson, Albanese responded, "Got a couple of melons," making a similar gesture, and added that Takaichi had brought two and that "they're beautiful". Opposition communications spokeswoman Sarah Henderson called on the Prime Minister to apologise to Takaichi and to all women, saying he had dragged women into "crude locker room talk". The criticism follows earlier backlash over Albanese taking part in a game of "shag, marry, date".