Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and his climate change minister, Chris Bowen, have been caught on a hot mic joking about keeping their phones in their pants pockets, in an unguarded moment at the COP31 climate summit in Antalya, Türkiye.
The exchange was recorded on Friday as the two men waited to address a business roundtable on investment in Australia’s renewable energy transition, before their official remarks began. Channel Seven picked up the conversation during its production process and aired it on 7 News.
In the recording, Albanese asks Bowen, “Do you keep your phone here?” Bowen answers, “Generally, yeah,” then says he is “more conscious of my pants pocket.” Albanese asks, “Because of your dick?” Bowen replies, “Because of my dick. That’s rather important,” and adds, “Arguably more important than the heart.” Both men laugh through the exchange.
Bowen is not only Australia’s climate change and energy minister. As COP31 president of negotiations, he is the official charged with pulling nearly 200 countries together in the summit’s hardest talks, which continue in Antalya after Albanese’s departure.
A spokesman for the prime minister brushed the moment off, saying, “They were having a joke in between meetings.”
7 News Europe correspondent Jacquelin Magnay, who reported the moment, described it as “schoolboy humour” and said delegates at the summit were already laughing about it. She reported that it undermines Bowen’s credibility in the negotiating rooms and that he will have to laugh off what could have been a damaging moment for Australia. 10 News and The Sydney Morning Herald also reported the exchange.
Video: 7 News
