Footage first aired by Australia's Channel Seven on Nov. 13 showed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese making a crude joke to climate minister Chris Bowen at the COP31 climate summit.
Albanese warned that keeping a phone near Bowen's heart could interfere with his heart rhythm. Bowen said the phone in his pocket worried him more. Albanese asked, “Because of your dick?” Bowen replied that the pocket concern was “arguably more important than the heart.”
The two officials were speaking on the sidelines of the summit in Antalya, Turkey. An Albanese spokesperson told AFP they were joking between meetings.
The Straits Times reported that Australia leads COP31 negotiations and is a major exporter of fossil fuels. In 2015, then-immigration minister Peter Dutton made a joke about Pacific islands' timekeeping and sea flooding that offended island leaders, the newspaper reported; Tony Abbott was prime minister.
