Anthony Albanese was asked twice in the House of Representatives on Tuesday whether he'd apologise to Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi over the gesture he made about her gift of two crown melons, and Foreign Minister Penny Wong was asked three times in the Senate whether she'd advised him to do it. Across two chambers and five questions, neither of them answered.
The only apology on record over the whole affair remains a written line his office put out in July saying he apologised "unequivocally for the comments", and that one was about Kylie Minogue.
Mary Aldred, the Member for Monash and Opposition Whip, put the first question to Anthony Albanese. She told the House the Prime Minister had made "a series of foul-mouthed, classless comments about women" on the Bush Deep podcast recorded at The Lodge, and asked whether he'd personally apologise to Ms Takaichi.
"I reject the assertion in the question," Mr Albanese said, according to Hansard. He then spent the rest of his answer on the joint declaration on economic security, defence and security cooperation, energy security, critical minerals and a new strategic cyber partnership. Aaron Violi, the Member for Casey, interjected and was warned by Speaker Milton Dick. Only after that did the Prime Minister say Ms Takaichi was "a friend of Australia and a friend of mine".
He never addressed the apology.
Mary Aldred asked again eleven minutes later and Albanese talked about frigates
Ms Aldred stood up and stripped the question back to one sentence. "Will the Prime Minister apologise to the Prime Minister of Japan for his disrespectful behaviour?"
"I have a very good relationship with the Prime Minister of Japan," Mr Albanese began. "We have met on the sidelines of various forums, and I have welcomed the Prime Minister of Japan here. That visit was a very successful visit. The relationship has meant that, with purchases such as the Mogami frigates in Defence, that is..."
Manager of Opposition Business Dan Tehan rose on relevance. Before the Speaker could rule on it, Mr Dick told the chamber that "the Prime Minister has indicated he's concluded his answer" and moved to the next question. Mr Albanese had sat down rather than finish. The exchange is on page 22 of Tuesday's Hansard, and the footage sits in the ParlView recording.
Later that afternoon Andrew Willcox, the Member for Dawson, returned to it during the Matters of Public Importance debate. "So I ask the Prime Minister to apologise to the Prime Minister of Japan, apologise to Kylie Minogue and apologise to all the women of Australia," he told the House at 15:38.
Dave Sharma asked Penny Wong three times whether she'd told him to apologise
In the Senate the same afternoon, Liberal senator Dave Sharma asked the Foreign Minister directly whether she'd advised the Prime Minister to apologise for "the crude and insulting comments and gestures he made when discussing a symbolic and thoughtful gift of crown melons he received from her".
Senator Wong didn't say. "I am disappointed that those opposite are so desperate to score political points that they seek to confect a diplomatic issue to do so," she told the chamber, before listing her seven visits to Japan as Foreign Minister and her relationship with her counterpart Toshimitsu Motegi.
Michaelia Cash interjected across the chamber: "Have you told the PM as the Foreign minister to apologise?" Senator Wong's answer was that Senator Cash was "demonstrating why she's no longer in this shadow portfolio".
Senator Sharma asked twice more. On the first supplementary he quoted Japan's former ambassador to Australia, Shingo Yamagami, writing that the last thing Ms Takaichi expected was "to be so casually mocked by the trusted leader of Japan's special strategic partner", and asked whether the Foreign Minister agreed the comments were unworthy of an Australian prime minister. On the second he asked what steps she'd taken to protect the partnership from the Prime Minister's "boorish and insulting behaviour".
Neither time did she answer. She did mention, in passing, that she'd delivered the keynote at the 50th anniversary event for the Nara treaty herself. Mr Yamagami has written that the Prime Minister didn't turn up to it.
Katy Gallagher and Penny Wong ran Labor's case against Scott Morrison over Brittany Higgins
The two ministers now saying the podcast has been misread are the two who led Labor's prosecution of Scott Morrison over the handling of Brittany Higgins' allegation, when the standard Labor demanded was that a leader's response to women wasn't a matter of interpretation.
Senator Gallagher, who holds the women's portfolio alongside finance, told ABC Radio National Breakfast she accepted the Prime Minister's assurance the remarks had been misreported, as our report set out on Tuesday. Asked what she made of a prime minister moving his hands in front of his chest while discussing a woman's gift, she said: "I'll let other people make their judgements about it."
Senator Wong reached for the same formula in the Senate, telling Senator Sharma that "as Senator Gallagher said today, the Prime Minister has been clear that he did not mean for those comments to be interpreted in the way they have been by those opposite".
Anthony Albanese voted to keep Peter Slipper as Speaker after his texts about women
There's a precedent for how this government's senior figures behave when the conduct is their own side's, and it's on the record with their names attached.
On 9 October 2012, Tony Abbott moved to remove Peter Slipper as Speaker over text messages describing women's genitalia in crude terms. At 16:11 the House divided. The motion was defeated 70 votes to 69, a majority of one, and the division lists every name.
Anthony Albanese was one of the 70 who kept him there. He also spoke in the debate, immediately before the division was called.
So did Tanya Plibersek, now the Social Services Minister, and Julie Collins, now the Agriculture Minister. Both have defended the Prime Minister this week. Ms Plibersek has said Mr Yamagami was "100% wrong" and that his reading of the podcast was "a complete misinterpretation".
Senator Gallagher wasn't in that division. She was ACT Chief Minister until 2014 and didn't enter the Senate until 2015. Senator Wong was in the Senate and so wasn't in the House vote either.
Julia Gillard's misogyny speech was delivered to defeat that motion
The speech Labor has quoted at its opponents for 14 years was written for that vote. Julia Gillard rose that day to oppose Mr Abbott's motion, and it's where "I will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny by this man" comes from.
It's also, incidentally, the source of the "ditch the witch" charge in her own words. "I was offended when the Leader of the Opposition went outside the front of the parliament and stood next to a sign that said 'Ditch the witch'," she told the House. "I was offended when the Leader of the Opposition stood next to a sign that described me as a man's bitch."
On Mr Slipper's conduct she was careful. "I am offended by those text messages but I also believe that, in making a decision about the speakership, this parliament should recognise that there is court case in progress and that the judge has reserved his decision."
The unfinished process was reason enough to keep him. No such latitude was extended to the man on the other side of the chamber, and the government's numbers held.
The list of people asking for an apology keeps growing and none of them work for him
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor, deputy Liberal leader Jane Hume, Senator Cash, Shadow Foreign Minister Ted O'Brien, teal independent Monique Ryan and One Nation's Barnaby Joyce had all called for a personal apology before parliament sat, as we reported on Tuesday. Mr O'Brien went to Japan's ambassador Kazuhiro Suzuki and expressed his regret in person, because the Prime Minister hadn't.
Tony Abbott added his name on Tuesday night. "If you don't apologise, it doesn't just look like a lapse, it looks like a very serious character flaw and very serious lack of judgment," he told News24.
Everyone still defending the Prime Minister is in his cabinet. Two of them helped save Peter Slipper's job in 2012, and the man who won't apologise now was in that division with them.
