A camera warming up for Albanese’s clean energy pitch caught him and Bowen joking about phones and genitals

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Energy Minister Chris Bowen were caught on a hot microphone at the COP31 climate summit in Antalya, Türkiye, joking about mobile phone radiation in an exchange that ended with a crude remark about Bowen’s genitals.

The pair were waiting for a business roundtable on renewable energy investment in Australia to begin, on the sidelines of the UN conference. A news camera was already rolling to capture their opening remarks. The conversation did not appear to have been heard by anyone else in the room. It was broadcast in Australia on Friday evening, after it was noticed during production.

What did they say?

Albanese slipped his phone into his jacket’s chest pocket and said he had heard it was better to keep it away from the heart because it “can interfere with your rhythm”. Bowen joked that the phone might be “a little bit radioactive”, and said he had become more careful about keeping his own phone in his trouser pocket.

Albanese then asked, crudely, whether that was out of concern for Bowen’s genitals. Bowen agreed, saying they were arguably “more important than the heart”, and both men laughed.

What does the Prime Minister’s office say?

A spokesperson for Albanese played it down: “They were having a joke in between meetings.” Neither the Prime Minister nor Bowen has commented further, and no response from the Opposition had been reported by Saturday morning.

Why does it matter?

On its own, the clip is two ministers making a dirty joke they thought nobody could hear. Its timing is the problem. The roundtable it preceded was Albanese’s pitch to international investors: he told them Australia had abundant renewable resources, critical minerals and a stable investment environment, and was well placed to win a share of a “multi-trillion-dollar” clean energy industry.

It also lands in a difficult week for Australia’s standing at the summit. Australia is leading the negotiations at COP31, with Bowen as co-president, and for two days its record has been attacked by activists and environmental groups. Greta Thunberg said Australia was moving too slowly; Albanese responded by pointing to the 43 per cent emissions cut target for 2030 and saying she was entitled to her views. Greenpeace and others criticised him for not naming fossil fuels as the cause of climate change in his opening address, which he said was focused on the needs of Pacific nations.

Is there anything to the phone radiation idea?

Some research has suggested mobile phone radiation may affect heart activity and male fertility, mainly in people with existing conditions, but the evidence is limited. Health authorities in Australia say there is no established health risk from normal phone use.

Where are they now?

Albanese left Türkiye soon after the roundtable for the ASEAN summit in Manila, where he will also watch Australia and the Philippines sign a defence agreement on Sunday. Bowen has stayed in Antalya to keep running the negotiations.