TED O’BRIEN
SHADOW MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS
FEDERAL MEMBER FOR FAIRFAX
TRANSCRIPT
NEWS24
INTERVIEW WITH CHRIS KENNY
11 August 2026
E&OE………………………………
Chris Kenny
Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister, Ted O'Brien. Good to talk to you again, Ted. He's in denial, isn't he? The Prime Minister pretending that his puerile joke was nothing of the kind?
Ted O'Brien
Good to be with you again, Chris. And yes, he is. And my message to the Prime Minister is: denial is not diplomacy. Unfortunately, the more he and his ministers are out there in the media, bizarrely pretending that nothing really happened, the more they're making a story out of this. And unfortunately, they are themselves just creating a diplomatic issue, and that's a real concern.
Chris Kenny
I would have thought a public or even a private phone call of apology was more in order. But speaking of his ministers, it must be very humiliating for people like Tanya Plibersek, you know, a feminist, a strong feminist all her life, having to having to run ride shotgun on this rubbish, and today we had to see the denial go even to the minister for women. Here she is again, Katie Gallagher.
Katie Gallagher
I know this prime minister. I work with him every day. I know he's how he relates to women. He has enormous respect for women.
Chris Kenny
And she is pretending that this skit showed no disrespect to women?
Ted O'Brien
Chris. You know, there's a part of me that just feels sorry for them. I mean, can you imagine being a female Labor minister getting the phone call from the Prime Minister's office and saying, "Can you please go out and try to justify what the Prime Minister has done here'. And they're trying to defend the indefensible here. I actually feel desperately sorry for them because I think to the person they know hand on heart the Prime Minister did the wrong thing. I just wish for the national interest he would nip this in the bud, apologize, and get on with it. The relationship with Japan is way too important for him to be continually denying and forcing his ministers to run these lines of denial.
Chris Kenny
Yeah, and I think it's not too hard for any of us to imagine that if you'd done that podcast interview as Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister and made the same gestures and comments that there would be all hell to pay. The Parliament and the media would have run you out of your Shadow Portfolio by now. So take that as a comment, if you will. I want to move further on to the serious diplomacy here because you mentioned the relationship with Japan. Obviously, this is adds tension to that; it needs to be cleared up. But other nations in the region will be watching this, especially those nations that we have sometimes fractious relationships with in Southeast Asia. They they will be seeing this as very embarrassing for Australia, wouldn't they?
Ted O'Brien
Most likely, Chris, and I believe Australia really should be positioning itself as the most trusted partner in the Indo-Pacific. But trust can only be built by human beings, by people. People-to-people engagement has to be done on the basis of absolute respect. Now, when you're dealing with a country like Japan, and I've, you know, my first trip to Japan was as a teenager helping my dad with business, and I've had many years up and back and forth doing business in Japan. We are talking about people who are deeply respectful. Anyone who's even been on a holiday to Japan understands how respectful and polite they are. So in other countries, hear about the Australian Prime Minister speaking with such a vulgar potty mouth about the Japanese Prime Minister-that does not help us. And again, this is why this is bigger than just some political thing in Australia. This wasn't a big deal over the last four weeks. It wasn't until the Prime Minister and his ministers started denying it that this is getting attention, and until they nip this in the bud and deal with it honestly in a very forthright way, then other countries will hear about this, and it does our nation no good, no good at all.
Chris Kenny
Yeah, I think you're spot on. Thanks for joining us, Ted. I appreciate it.
