The melons rolled quite gently out of the gate – then suddenly became an avalanche for Albanese. Anthony Albanese must be ruing the day he agreed to what was, at face value, a softball interview on the Bush Deep podcast with the comedian Nikki Osborne. It initially made headlines when he nominated Kylie Minogue for all three categories playing “shag, marry, date” (he later apologised “unequivocally” for the comments).
Melon-gate erupts
Now, melon-gate has arrived, and to the Coalition a diplomatic crisis is on our hands. But why is it only making headlines now, a month later? The podcast aired on 3 July, when the PM took part in a crude exchange about receiving “a couple of melons” from Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, smirking as he gestured with his hands in front of his chest. The frenzy was focused on Minogue, although The Australian published one article about the melon comments on 6 July, when the Coalition first accused him of making disrespectful remarks. On 7 July Andrew Bolt joined in, calling it “so trashy, and so insulting, and so sexist”.
Then for weeks there was silence, until an article appeared in the Japan Times on 27 July under the headline “Sanae Takaichi: The prime minister nobody defended”. It was republished in the Australian Financial Review on 31 July, and again in The Australian on 1 August. Things really kicked off when the former Japanese ambassador Shingo Yamagami weighed in on 10 August, with a piece in the Oz arguing the joke “betrayed the close bond of our two nations”. It was accompanied by a front-page story pointing to the “crown melons affair”.
Media frenzy and international coverage
Over the next three days the Oz published 15 online articles about melon-gate, including one with the classy headline “Anthony Albanese’s meek girls back in their boss”, referring to his most senior female colleagues. The West Australian has published 18 articles this week and the AFR eight, including one claiming Japan’s “social media” believes Australians are “sexist melon haters”. Melon-gate has also gone international, with the story picked up by the BBC, and in Singapore, Europe and the US. Interestingly, though, coverage in Japan has been largely limited to wire services.
Sandilands goes live – sort of
Kyle Sandilands may have lost his job on commercial radio, but he still has a supporter in the New South Wales premier. Chris Minns cut the ribbon to launch Kyle Sandilands Live on Monday morning, after the four-hour broadcast got off to a muted start – literally. After a voiceover declared the “golden microphone is on”, viewers were greeted with dead air and Sandilands on mute, looking panicked. It was all downhill from there. Lewd jokes dominated, including Sandilands asking his staff how many people they had had sex with at one time, and when they had lost their virginity, and his cultural commentator, Mary Madigan, whether she wanted to see a “mangina”. A stepmother and 19-year-old stepson in a relationship (don’t ask) were also interrogated at horrific, graphic length, including being chanted at to kiss on air.
Apparently this was all fine with Minns, who described himself as a “fan” of Sandilands on air, and said he was “worried” for him after he was sacked. “There’s not many shows … that don’t keep going when they’re number one,” he said. “But I’m glad this is up and running. This is fantastic.” Sandilands attempted to get another friend of his, the prime minister, on the phone while he was on air. But sadly it went to voicemail, and he later realised he had accidentally called Scott Morrison instead. One leader who did pick up was Pauline Hanson, whom Sandilands fondly described as “Aunty Pauline”.
The reviews of day one were mixed. Nine.com.au called it an “absolute shitshow” and news.com.au said it was a “hot mess”, while The Australian compared Sandilands to “Jack Sparrow with a microphone” and called Madigan, a News Corp employee, an “inspired hire”. Sandilands took the reviews to heart, insulting Nick Bond, who wrote the news.com.au article, on air on Tuesday. Technical difficulties persisted until Friday, when producers were forced to cut the livestream less than two hours in. They posted a video apologising to viewers and promised to use the weekend to “properly get everything sorted”.
‘Makes me so angry’
It seems Sandilands’ love affair with Karl Stefanovic may be over. On Tuesday the shock jock’s producer, Jaimee “Mayo” Hassos, claimed Stefanovic had snubbed a planned appearance on Sandilands’ program, citing scheduling difficulties. They had planned to surprise Stefanovic by introducing him to the comedian who has been parodying him. “Screw you, Karl!” Hassos told viewers. “We have Henry Bretz … the better version of Karl.” Bretz has received viral acclaim for his videos making fun of Stefanovic, and told Guardian Australia last month he was unsure if he would go on Stefanovic’s podcast if invited. “I don’t really want to be seen to endorse what he’s doing … because I do think there’s some fairly scary forces he’s trying to tap into,” he said at the time.
Apparently, though, Sandilands’ show was neutral territory. Bretz said he disagreed with him on political issues, but told him during the lengthy interview: “We think you’re great, we love what you’re doing here guys.” We’ll see if it was a good move for his career. There was a fair bit of anger in the comments on a picture of him with Sandilands shared on Instagram, with some remarking “makes me so angry” (a tagline Bretz uses for Stefanovic). Bretz said in a social media video it was “too late” to pull out of the Sandilands show when it was revealed Stefanovic wouldn’t appear. Presumably, Stefanovic was too busy attending rodeos with Hanson and doing weird things with Vegemite while wearing his sponsored Ringers Western cowboy hat.
AI ‘debt tsunami’ incoming!
A “dramatic new ad” depicting the destruction of Victoria by a “debt tsunami” is hitting TV screens, produced by a group called FixVictoria. The Australian quoted the head of the new lobby group, Gideon Rozner, as saying it was “independent”, but failed to disclose in its print edition that Rozner is the former head of policy at the conservative thinktank the Institute of Public Affairs. “Gideon Rozner, head of advocacy and membership at FixVictoria, said the group was a membership-based organisation open to all Victorians and said it was independent of any political party. FixVictoria declined to disclose the identity of any major donors, citing privacy,” the article read. The digital version of the article did include Rozner’s history in its final line, as did News24’s. The Australian did not respond to a request for comment.
Down with this sort of thing. The FixVictoria advertising campaign visualises its “debt tsunami” using AI-generated scenes, which are hard to avoid these days. Just look at the Daily Telegraph’s AI-generated impression of how Sydney’s planned town hall square might look, featuring protesters with signs reading “generic complaint”, “against complain” and “we hate everything”. “In the interest of getting a more realistic vision of what the square might look like, the Daily Telegraph used AI technology to imagine the square complete as it might look with these features – including protests about Aboriginal rights, Palestine, and generic anger in general,” its article read.
Comment is fact-free
The independent senator Lidia Thorpe has sent a formal complaint to Network 10 after a social media post about two Indigenous boys who were seriously injured after allegedly being struck by a ute in Mildura was flooded with racist comments. A 56-year-old man faces numerous charges over the incident, including four counts of reckless conduct endangering life, the ABC reported. The post was uploaded to 10 News Melbourne’s Facebook page last week and received dozens of hateful comments – many of them seen by Guardian Australia – before the feature was disabled and the most violent rhetoric deleted. Thorpe’s letter, sent to the vice president, Martin White, on Thursday, said there had been an “alarming level of misinformation, racism and commentary condoning violence against the children” under the post. Thorpe quoted the magistrate in the case as saying “it’s outrageous, some of the commentary about the boys, who are completely blameless”. Thorpe also drew attention to the 2022 Voller case, in which the high court found media companies could be held legally responsible for third party comments on their social media pages. Network 10 declined to comment.
