Australian PM caught making genital joke with climate minister at COP31 - watch
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Climate Minister Chris Bowen were recorded making a private joke about phone radiation and anatomy at the COP31 summit. The incident sparked criticism from opposition leaders who labeled the behavior as unprofessional and questioned the government's spending on the delegation.
Why it matters
It highlights the scrutiny public officials face regarding their conduct and taxpayer-funded travel during international climate summits.
A private exchange between the prime minister of Australia Anthony Albanese and the Australian minister for climate change and energy Chris Bowen was inadvertently caught on camera on the sidelines of the COP31 summit in Türkiye.The exchange was a private joke related to phone radiation and male anatomy and was recorded by a news camera microphone before a business roundtable on renewable energy investment in Antalya on Friday. The conversation, which was not apparently heard by others in the room, was later broadcast by Channel 7 after being picked up during production.Albanese was putting his phone into his jacket pocket when he told Bowen he had heard it was better to keep the device away from the heart because it could interfere with its rhythm.Bowen jokingly asked whether this was because the phone was “a little bit radioactive”.
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