Jodi Lee: Hello and welcome to Covered, a podcast that helps you figure out what is going on in the news, but also how you feel about it.

Annie Pullar: Here to guide you through the biggest stories of the week, we are your hosts, journalists, Annie Puller and Jodie Lee.

Jodi Lee: On this week's episode we dive into

Annie Pullar: Geelong's concussion saga goes from bad to worse this week. We unpack what happened and the backlash engulfing the club and more broadly the AFL.

Jodi Lee: A US mother is standing trial for killing all three of her children, why the Lindy Clancy case has everybody captivated across social media, but it's also dividing opinion.

Annie Pullar: It's so sad. And finally, Anthony Albanese has doubled down after being accused of sexism over a bizarre joke involving Japan's Prime Minister and two melons. It's now officially being called Melon Gate. But first let's go to our honorable mentions. These are the stories that don't quite warrant a deep dive, but are worth getting your head across this week.

Jodi Lee: yeah, there's been some good news, I guess you could call it that, some sort of relief for mortgage holders, with the Reserve Bank of Australia keeping the cash rate on hold at its meeting this week at 4.35%. What that means is people who have mortgages with banks, their interest won't go up, but it also won't go down. It's just staying put this month. Obviously, people who own homes and have mortgages have had a real run of it of late. Our housing prices have tanked right across the country, the economy has slowed down. But those interest rates are still somewhat stubbornly high. So I guess you could call it some relief, but the Reserve Bank meets every month, so we'll have to wait until next month to see what they do next.

Annie Pullar: Yeah, probably not much to celebrate at this point. But moving to our next honorable mention, and this has to be one of the strangest police blunders I have ever seen. A couple driving through regional New South Wales spotted a suitcase which was dumped on the side of the road. They looked inside and thought that they'd found a woman's body. Obviously called police, officers arrived, set up a very big crime scene, called in forensics, and launched what they believe was a homicide investigation. Even the top cop went On Sunrise and today's show that morning, responding to this major investigation. But there was just one fairly major problem in it all. It wasn't a woman, it was a sex dole. Apparently, it was a very realistic sex dole, complete with clothes, hair, a nose piercing, even markings that look like bruises. So it took officers more than 20 hours to work that out. I think the big question everyone is asking is how? well, New South Wales police are standing by their response. Saying that they had to treat this as a potential crime scene. Obviously, they were very thorough. They couldn't go rummaging through the suitcase without doing the due diligence here. But after a forensic examination, it was very quickly confirmed that this was not a woman.

Jodi Lee: Plastic. And our final honorable mention this week is US President Donald Trump's press secretary, Caroline Levitt, is Leaving the White House. You would recognize her if you saw her face. She's the young blonde woman that fronts the media and answers all manner of questions. She's incredibly direct. Some say quite scathing, but she's been Donald Trump's right-hand woman for some time. She's also incredibly young and has done the job at just the age of 28. Some people have speculated that she's leaving because of some unknown scandal, but She insists that's not the case. She's actually recently welcomed her second child and says she's decided to step down from the role to spend more time with her family, that old line. She's not disappearing completely. Trump is said to be keeping Caroline Levitt on as a kind of outside advisor. But the timing of this resignation is pretty tricky, obviously. Americans are heading to the polls very soon. And this sees Donald Trump lose one of his key sort of supports in front of the media and the broader public. So he's kind of losing one of his most effective messages at a really significant and critical time.

Annie Pullar: Yeah, I mean something Fishy is going up here. Like this caught so many people off guard. She wasn't just his right hand man. She was literally just like his go-to person for everything. So we'll have to wait and see how that unfolds. But I want to move first to the story that's leading this podcast, and that is the concussion scandal engulfing Geelong Football Club. There are really very big questions being asked in the AFL over who's responsible for a particular player's health. Typically, we know. That clubs historically have done all they can to actually protect their players from injury, protect their mental health, and importantly protect them from concussion, which is incredibly common. But this week it's come to light that Geelong, the cats, privately asked a player to sign a waiver, which pretty much made Geelong the football club exempt from any responsibility in future concussion injuries.

Jodi Lee: Yeah, this is a really interesting one. So let's take it back though, because this didn't happen recently. Although it came out this week, this actually all took place in 2024. And the player at the center of this added himself this week and went public and said, look hi, this is me. It's Jake Collagasny, he's a defender for the Geelong cats. He came out publicly and said, I agreed to sign this waiver. The history here is really interesting. His twin brother Cade actually has a really long history with concussion and had to retire from the AFL due to those head injuries. So this isn't isolated. That's not to say that Color Jasmine himself has suffered several like his brother, but as you mentioned, concussion is a really serious issue in all contact sports, not just the AFL. But he signed this waiver two years before it eventually came out. And the waiver said that if College Asmie wanted to continue playing, he had to agree in writing that if he suffered any brain trauma down the track that the club wasn't legally responsible for it. So he basically was saying, regardless of what happens to me, I can I absolve the Geelong Football Club and I can never sue.

Annie Pullar: Yeah, I mean it's been an it would be an understatement to say that the backlash hasn't been far reaching and widespread. He's actually been ruled out to play this weekend to protect him from the onslaught of commentary that we have seen. But I think it's important to run through the timeline of how this unfolded. So it became public last Thursday when the Herald Sun, the paper in Melbourne broke the story. And by that night it was pretty much dominating every footy chat across the country. I mean, I think they were the questions that everyone was asking as soon as this story broke. obviously all we wanted to hear was the AFL's response. They came out quite quickly, but the response was oddly soft in the wake of this. They put out a statement saying that they were satisfied that the letter wasn't used to send a medically unfit player back out onto the field, which I think completely dodges. The the one bit of information that everyone wanted to actually hear is why did a document like this exist in the first place? And why has it taken two years for anyone outside the Geelong Football Club to find out about it? Like that in itself is a red flag. but it is important to note that that soft line didn't really last long at all. by Friday we saw the Geelong CEO Steve Hawking step out in front of the media. He basically confirmed that the club had been issued a pleas explain by the AFL, which is sort of a formal written arrangement demanding that the club speak out, say what happened, be transparent about it, and explain why.

Jodi Lee: The question of how this happened is so critical. And what I found really interesting was that we're actually hearing that the wording of College Asne's clause, this waiver, the exact legal wording was allegedly identical to a clause that the AFL had already approved once before, not for an elite level sort of first grade AFL player, but for another player playing in a lower level competition. So obviously the talk is, the suggestion is that Geelong had wasn't confused about the rules at all, that it had seen this work for somebody else, you know, at a at a lower level, whether it was at VFL level or whatever, and they thought, great, beauty, here's an easy solve. Like it's already allegedly been before the AFL and it worked. So why can't we do the same?

Annie Pullar: Yeah, I think i it was almost like a matter of repeating history, but if you listen to what the Geelong CEO has said, he has really tried to dismiss that allegation. It was something that he didn't want to touch during a press conference. In fact, I want you to listen to what he said, because at least putting my PR hat on, and I'd like to get your opinion, this is probably not the way that I would have handled a scandal like this. Sorry, I just

Jodi Lee: See, I actually disagree. I think that's a masterclass. What is PR? PR is just comment on.

Annie Pullar: Really? I find him super arrogant.

Jodi Lee: His tone might be a bit arrogant, but he said he he just he fell on his sword straight away. He said, I completed I it was me. Like he took full accountability. Then he said he acknowledged it wasn't put before the Players Association or before the AFL itself. When asked why, he said it was just a misstep, it was a mistake. So he wasn't trying to come up with excuses. Yeah, his tone was a little bit like, I'm confident that I have the board's full support. But at the end of the day, he owned it. I mean you didn't say the word sorry, which would have been nice, but

Annie Pullar: Yeah, but I think I think a sorry would have been nice. And I think using the word mistake i is probably not the word to use here. I think this was a very deliberate decision, and one that was trying to ultimately protect the club. But let's park that for a second because we feel strongly about this story. But I think here's where it gets awkward more generally for the AFL, because the Geelong president who actually signed Off on this back in 2024 is Craig Drummond, who's actually now chairman of the entire AFL commission. So the man who is meant to be judging Geelong is the same man who let this happen at Geelong. So I think a lot of people are also asking: how can that man be in charge or have oversight now of this investigation?

Jodi Lee: Yeah, well I think he's recused himself from the process. He also acknowledges that it h it's too close for comfort, so he said, in my new role as chair of the commission, I can't be involved in this, which I think is, you know, the right thing to do. so the AFL's actually brought in an independent lawyer, and they'll obviously be going through this, you hope, with a fine tooth cone to work out who was responsible at what level and where the breakdown and the problems were. Here's the thing for me: it brings up this old adage of it's it's the old HR question. I hate to say this. Does your employer really have your back? Or does a workpla it is a workplace out to serve its own interests? And if your interests differ from the workplaces, are they responsible? And you know, I mean anyone in a workplace in Australia no doubt would have had them sorry to all the HR professionals, but had this conversation with their colleagues. Like, is HR here for staff or is HR here for the business? And they're actually there for the workplace.

Annie Pullar: Yeah, I mean ultimately to me this feels like a business decision. And I think there's there's more to say about this because I feel like while these clubs are a business, they also have a duty of care that a typical business doesn't have in the fact that they are representing players every single day that are training seven days a week, putting their bodies on the line, their minds on the line, and it is their job to protect that. But

Jodi Lee: How is it different from somebody who operates heavy machinery in their job? Like there are Australians out there who do really dangerous things for work. They might be very well compensated for them. You know, you only have to look at the mining sector. Okay, I take your point, they're not public facing in the way that footy players are. I'm obviously playing devil's advocate, but I'm just saying, like, does the AFL have any more responsibility to players than a mining company does to miners?

Annie Pullar: No, I hear you, but I think the difference is that y you can't ignore the fact that these are public prominent figures. We idolize them, they're our heroes, we watch them every weekend, we put them up on a pedestal. And I think to dismiss something like concussion in this game It's not just dismissing like a mental health episode. It's dismissing something that could ultimately implicate someone's life for the rest of their life and lead to very serious medical conditions. So I hear what you're saying, but I actually think there has been a real failure of duty of care here. And it was only what? It only felt like a couple of months ago we were speaking about Elijah Hollands and that whole Carlton bloody uproar. So that'll be an interesting benchmark to compare to what happens here because obviously Geelong will face some sort of sanction, whether that

Jodi Lee: Yeah, let's so let's just remind people. So obviously Carlton copped a seventy five thousand dollar fine because a player from that team, Elijah Hollands, had a very visible mental health episode on the field at the MCG during a game and it was deemed by the AFL that Carlton was too slow to act and take him off the field. So the club was fined seventy five grand for basically, you know, failing in its duty of care to him and his mental health. That's what you're referring to.

Annie Pullar: and a lot of experts or insiders have said that they think that this sanctional fine is gonna be higher than that. That's something that we're gonna have to wait to see. It'll probably take weeks to actually come out. But for me, yeah, I I think it's an interesting it's like a balancing act, this this discussion that it's led to, because it it really does make you consider w what what role does a club play in a player's mental health and and their medical health? Like w where does that sit and who's responsible for it? Is it the club? Is it the AFL? Is it the players association? It there doesn't seem to be one silver bullet solution here.

Jodi Lee: Yeah, and we're obviously so passionate about our sport as a nation, but at what cost? You know, we talk so much about brain injury, we speak so much about CTE on this podcast. and you only have to look at the AFL. You know, three rates have been diagnosed with CTE. Danny Frawley is among them. at what point do we weigh up protecting players and their families versus just getting them to do whatever they can? I mean the other the other angle of this is these are young men who train their entire and women who train their entire lives to play this sport on the biggest stage. Their whole identity in many cases, particularly for the boys who don't have any other job, is wrapped up in this game. You can understand why if they were offered this contract, a player would do absolutely anything they could to stay out on the field and be available for selection. So I don't begrudge him for selecting it. Like like I sort of feel like he was backed into a corner.

Annie Pullar: and I think that that's a really valid point because why would a player stop themselves from playing? Like it is literally their ultimate goal to be on that field, to be turning up for their team each week. It's their livelihood, it's their identity. So why would they actively make a decision that eliminates them from that equation? But you know, is there a conversation about how we better nurture them to make the right decisions in the interest of their health instead of the interest of their footy career that is only gonna last so long?

Jodi Lee: So tricky, and I think every individual is different. Probably an interesting point to end on is that the AFL has now written to all the clubs and asked them to voluntarily come forward if they have a similar contract or agreement with any players. So I think that says the league isn't confident that this is an isolated incident. But yeah, you're right. Football needs an honest, probably quite uncomfortable conversation about what duty of care looks like and what if there is a cost. being a a physical cost to success on fields.

Annie Pullar: well, we're always happy to have the uncomfortable conversation here. But with that, I want to move to our next story. And I think I just need to say outright that there is really no easy way to transition into this one. We actually debated whether we even should do it, but we felt that it was important. A mother has been accused of murdering her three young children in the US. She's currently on trial in Massachusetts, and it's become one of those cases that is quite literally impossible to avoid. If you have been on social media this week, it has probably appeared in your feed. It's the case of Lindsay Clancy. It's being live streamed, debated across social media, it's dividing people in the US, in fact it's dividing people here in Australia. and that's why we really wanted to talk about it.

Jodi Lee: yes, very well said. And if you or someone you know needs help, you can always contact Lifeline on 1311 14. But let's dive further into this story. It's obviously as you mentioned the story of Lindsay Clancy. Lindsay was a labour and delivery nurse, so she was very well versed in the art of bringing children into the world. And she was living with her husband Patrick in Massachusetts, a state in the United States. They had three children, Cora, Dawson, and Callan, who the youngest, Callan, was just eight months old. but after he was born, Lindsay's mental health really took a decline and a dive. She became incredibly anxious. she was very public and open about the fact that she'd struggled to sleep, and over the following months was prescribed. A long list of psychiatric medications in an effort to to help her feel better.

Annie Pullar: Yeah, I think depending on which side of the fence you're sitting on, she's either a mum who deliberately murdered her three children or she's a mum who was profoundly and deeply mentally unwell, suffering a very acute mental episode, and simply couldn't understand what she was doing. But the the warning signs really were there for her. after having her third child, by the end of that year, She knew something was seriously wrong. She had spent time in psychiatric care before checking into hospital. She checked herself in on New Year's Day. And she apparently stayed for about a week and then discharged herself. but during that period, she actually was never diagnosed with postpartum psychosis. And it's important to make the distinction between that and postpartum depression because. Psychosis can actually cause someone to completely lose touch with reality. They can experience delusions, paranoia, hallucinations, and they can feel very numb inside. Obviously they are themselves.

Jodi Lee: A really critical distinction to make. So it was just 19 days after she left that hospital on the 24th of January that Lindsay Clancy murdered all three of her children and tried to take her own life. what's difficult to reconcile is that her husband Patrick has since said that that day was one of her best days. she took her daughter Cora to the doctor that morning. They're said to have played in the snow together as a family. And then in the afternoon she asked Patrick to head out and to pick up some medication and some dinner. He left around a quarter past five in the evening and was gone for only about fifty minutes, so less than an hour.

Annie Pullar: and that window of time is a really central part of this case now. That's the window that Lindsay is accused of killing her three children using exercise bands. Apparently Patrick returned to a silent house. He was calling out for their names, he couldn't hear anyone. We're not going to go into the details of what he found there, but that 9-11 call was so distressing that it was played to a close court. obviously Lindsay tried to take her own life. He found her outside below a second story window, and she did survive that fall, but she was left paralyzed and she's actually attended court every single day, now in a wheelchair.

Jodi Lee: so yeah, she survived, which is why we have a trial at all. She's been charged with three counts of murder for each of her children that she's pleaded not guilty to. So she says everybody agrees that she did it. But the question for the jury to decide is was she criminally responsible for what she did? So let's just explain that again, because this is very common in the courts. It's not whether she did it, it's whether she could be held criminally responsible because of her mental health situation at the time.

Annie Pullar: Yeah, guilty mind, guilty act. And this is where I think, you know, the the prosecution and the defense are obviously telling very different stories here. If you listen to what the prosecution has been putting down, their argument is that Lindsay was unwell, they're not denying that, but that she wasn't psychotic at the time that this happened. That she knew it, she she planned this. and the detail that they've focused on is actually that window when Patrick left the house because they're saying that she actually checked on her Apple maps how long the drive to that restaurant was. And their argument was that she was basically working out how long he would take to be gone, and in that time has planned the unthinkable.

Jodi Lee: Well, the defense sees it really differently though. They basically say that she was in a psychotic break, that she was severely sleep deprived, that she was, you know, on a cocktail of different very heavy medications and ultimately no longer connected to reality, that she was suffering from psychosis. And her defense team says that she heard a male voice in that moment telling her that this was the her last chance to kill her children and herself. So that's kind of the trial in a nutshell. Not did she do this thing, but can she be held responsible? Did she understand what was taking place?

Annie Pullar: and it's been a pretty harrowing week of evidence in this trial. Her husband Patrick was called to give evidence by the prosecution. I should mention that he is now her ex-husband. He's actually remarried and had a child since this all unfolded.

Jodi Lee: I didn't know that.

Annie Pullar: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I mean there's a whole thing on the internet about that, but we're not we're not gonna go into it. But I do wanna play you a little bit of his testimony. it is worth noting that he has largely stood by Lindsay, not defending her actions, but pretty much saying that she was mentally not herself. So as I said, yeah, the warning signs were there. I I think he was well aware, medical teams were well aware, but somewhere along the way, a lot has slipped through the cracks.

Jodi Lee: Yeah, it's so heartbreaking how he stood by her. I actually saw something that even after the children's deaths, he publicly asked people to forgive her and said that she was a loving

Annie Pullar: I know.

Jodi Lee: and really dedicated mum. Like you know, you hear people say of of criminal cases all the time that there are no winners, but there are literally no winners in this.

Annie Pullar: No, not at not at all. And it and and there's no like there's nowhere to go with it. There's n it it it feels like you can't say anything about this case because there's no silver lining anywhere. It it's completely

Jodi Lee: We are.

Annie Pullar: tragic and he's actually separate to this criminal trial that's unfolded, he's actually filed a separate sort of civil suit suing the medical providers involved in her care over several years. He's essentially saying that. you know, these warning signs were missed, her treatment wasn't properly coordinated, and that's the reason her mental health deteriorated and got to this point.

Jodi Lee: Well, if it's found that she can't be held liable for these murders, then really the onus surely is on her medical team. Her psychiatrist, that woman, I think it's Dr. Jennifer Tufts, treated her in the months before the killings, like including the day before these poor

Annie Pullar: Mm.

Jodi Lee: kids were murdered. and she told the court that she never saw Lindsay display psychosis, no hallucinations, no delusions, and at her final appointment. Lindsay denied suicidal or homicidal thoughts.

Annie Pullar: Yeah, so this is either really damaging to the defence's argument or it proves just how blind-sided a lot of these medical providers were. you know, if she was psychotic, how did no one see it? Why did Patrick so willingly go to that shopping center and leave the house, leave her with the children? It just for me, there's just so many questions as to why.

Jodi Lee: I guess though y it's not something you can fully understand unless you've experienced it and thankfully I never have, but I imagine that when you have three children and a wife with mental health challenges, like every day is just about surviving. you know, three kids is b like you're one of four kids, like that's busy. That's a full house.

Annie Pullar: Yeah, it is.

Jodi Lee: And when you've got young children, what you know, the youngest two isn't even one yet. I imagine you're just trying to hold it together. But what I find even more fascinating about this, and it's so American, is that the trial is literally being live streamed. That would just never happen in Australia. Occasionally

Annie Pullar: And it's in

Jodi Lee: you get a judge handing down a sentence or

Annie Pullar: Well it's

Jodi Lee: a judgment that were allowed to show something. But in Australia you would just never have a live stream of a courtroom like especially in a case like this.

Annie Pullar: Well, it's even crazier that it's being live streamed because this is a case before a jury. Like, and we have an

Jodi Lee: that's cool.

Annie Pullar: entire corner of the internet basically dissecting every second of it, coming up with conspiracy theories, you know, people are taking sides. think this is an

Jodi Lee: Hang on, just to explain that to people who don't understand. So when a jury is obviously impaneled in Australia, there are very strict rules for journalists in the courtroom about what you can and can't publish. And the jury also has very strict rules about the kinds of information they can access. Because the court wants to ensure that everything the jury knows about the case is what's heard inside the courtroom. They don't want jurors leaving and Googling the accused. So, and that's actually really tricky to do in sort of today's technology. technological age. What you're saying is not only is there a jury there, but you're so right. I hadn't even thought about this. Every

Annie Pullar: Yeah.

Jodi Lee: Tom, Dick, and Harry on TikTok has like us, basically. Every

Annie Pullar: Yeah.

Jodi Lee: Tom, Dick, Jody and Annie on TikTok

Annie Pullar: YOU

Jodi Lee: has an opinion on what's going on. Like how do these how do these poor jurors avoid that?

Annie Pullar: Well, I know. It's a criminal trial playing out and then it's a trial by media and everyday person playing out at the same time. But I think I think it's really resonated with a very large corner of the internet, particularly mums who clearly feel like the system hasn't caught up quickly enough to some of the deep seated mental health issues women, young mums, experienced mums face when they have children. And I think it really comes boils down to a much bigger debate about postpartum depression, postpartum psychosis, which a lot of people probably don't realize I had never heard of it, to be honest. And a lot of people are actually coming out sharing their own experiences and weighing into this because I think for the first time they feel like, hang on, I don't just feel seen. I I feel like this is proof that That if if things aren't done, if there isn't someone intervening and taking these issues seriously, then look at what can happen.

Jodi Lee: such a sensitive time and it raises such an important point that we can't let mums fall through the cracks. I'm so intrigued to see how this unfolds. I gotta be honest, it's too heavy for me to follow so I'll be waiting for you to update me.

Annie Pullar: You'll I'll be telling you. I I feel shocking saying this, but I have been completely hooked. I'm almost one of those people dissecting every second, but that says so much more about me than what I probably wanted

Jodi Lee: I'm not surprised. I'm not surprised.

Annie Pullar: to share. But can we just move to something lighter already?

Jodi Lee: Yeah, we can 'cause this is a story that I have been utterly hooked on and it says a lot about me, I would think as well. from the outside

Annie Pullar: Yes, this is such a good distinction.

Jodi Lee: So just if you'd like an insight into our personalities, Annie is obviously hooked on the story of a triple murder inside a US courtroom. And I have been hooked on the Prime Minister cracking a very unsavoury gag about melons and using his hands to gesture towards his chest as though he was well endowed. melons gifted to him by the Japanese Prime Minister.

Annie Pullar: god, he really hasn't been able to live this moment down. So for anyone who has been living under a rock, this actually happened early July when Anthony Albanese sat down with comedian Nikki Osborne on her podcast, which is called The Lodge. sorry, no, it's called Bush Deep, not The Lodge. They sat down at the Lodge. Anyway, it's This satirical show, it's very footloose and fancy-free. I think she says whatever's on her mind doesn't hold back at all. And she does this with public figures. It's not exactly the backdrop for diplomatic language. So this intersection was going to be interesting from the start. you would have heard remarks Anthony Albanese made about Kylie Minogue, and we're not gonna go into that, but The conversation also became about diplomatic gifts, and that's where we enter the melons into the chat.

Jodi Lee: Yes, she asked him what is the strangest gift you've received, either here or abroad in your role as Prime Minister? Ha ha ha So can I just say if you close your eyes for a minute and you forget that this is the leader of our nation, it's really funny.

Annie Pullar: It's so funny and she's playing into it so well. Like she's just putting on this ignorant, sort of blonde, dumb chat that I feel like she knew exactly what she was doing.

Jodi Lee: Her bra is showing. Annie, her bra is showing, I just noticed. Her top is like lattice and her bra is on display. Alright, let's just take it back. So if you hadn't heard this, he's talking about how he was gifted a crown melon by the Japanese Prime Minister. The fact is he was actually only gifted one melon, but for comedic purposes, he then sort of changed his story in the moment to say that he got two melons. but crown melons are actually about as high status a gift as you can get in Japan. This is no joke. They retail for close to two hundred dollars each because the plants themselves they stopped them growing after they've only bore one melon. So they're incredibly rare. The way that they grow and then harvest them means that it concentrates the sweetness of the melon, so it's incredibly sweet in that single fruit. Their round shape is said to symbolize connection and that sweetness is linked to prosperity. Japan is obviously a deeply symbolic culture, so all of this is tied to the crown melon, and they're often reserved for the country's most important and esteemed occasions and relationships. And this gift was actually given at a very significant time as Australia and Japan celebrate 50 years of signing this basic treaty of friendship and cooperation. So we're celebrating 50 years of excellent relations. The Japanese Prime Minister, in goodwill, gifted old Albo a Melon, and then he's obviously discussed it, shall we say, in this unsavoury manner.

Annie Pullar: Yes, very good pun. And it is like this is a very important strategic partnership for us. So the fact that he was willing to make light and make joke of Japan's prime minister is completely tone-deaf, but we'll go there later. I think it's not just the joke about the melon that's kind of raising eyebrows, it's the context. It's that over-sexualized language around Pamela Anderson, the gesturing of, let's be honest, women's breasts. Him laughing, like the whole thing just gives me a massive ick. but I think it's important to note why this is sort of resurfaced now when this happened a couple of months ago. Because this week, Japan's former ambassador to Australia actually came out and wrote an opinion piece calling the gesture insulting to Japan's prime minister, who I might add is also Japan's first female PM. So that's why this has all exploded, because obviously the coalition has seen a great opportunity here to jump on board, One Nation's also piled on, and they have asked or demanded, I should say, Anthony Albanese to come out and apologize. This has even made headlines in the UK. Like it's gone global, Mellingate.

Jodi Lee: Melanchate. Yeah. So It's so hard because obviously the the podcast was publicised and no one bat an eyelid at this comment. It was the same podcast where she s where she gave him a list of Australian s female celebrities and said, I don't know, what's the appropriate what if not fuck Mary Kill, but Shag Mary something and

Annie Pullar: Yeah, it was something like that. Yeah.

Jodi Lee: he said, I'd do all of them to Kylie Minogue and that was the comment that really exact

Annie Pullar: When when he'd only just recently married Jody, like anyway.

Jodi Lee: he did actually say that. He look, I can't answer this question. I am just newly married. And she said, Go on, have a crack. And he said, look, I just love Kylie. And that really upset everybody. So that was the comment that went public. so it's the former Japanese ambassador. who said that this is completely unacceptable, but obviously that they're not in office anymore. Also worth noting that they had quite a checkered history with Labour, so that's sort of something to make note of. Japan's current ambassador, Kazuhiro Suzuki, apparently actually went the other way and said in a statement this week that Albanese didn't make the comments in the way that has been reported and that the dinner where this melon was presented you know, helped build trust between the two leaders and that so he basically s they smoothed it over. there's also been talk that Japan sent a memo, a a confidential memo to the Australian government saying, don't worry, we're not offended by the comment at the time of the broadcast. and that memo has somehow been leaked. So there's talk that maybe Albo's camp has leaked an e an internal confidential memo to try and defend it. But look, he's refused to apologize in true Albo fashion. It's just like it's cringe dad it's awful.

Annie Pullar: Yeah.

Jodi Lee: It's like, you know when you have an uncle at a Christmas party that has a few too many drinks and everybody is just rolling their eyes. That it's that.

Annie Pullar: I mean, I'm just it I'm just thinking of him having to send like a please explain to Japan's Prime Minister, who probably didn't even know this podcast had existed when there's a lot happening in that side of the world with Beijing and now she's hearing about melons and Pamela Anderson and her name. Like, it's just yet another embarrassment and egg on the face of a prime minister that really just doesn't understand the the The time. Like he just, I I think he just wanted to sound like one of the cool kids. You also have to understand that this podcast came out just after the budget was handed down, when so many Australians were revolting in the wake of that. Every media outlet wanted to speak to Anthony Albanese, and he chose to sit on a satirical podcast with a comedian over explaining to the Australian public why he made so many broken promises in. a budget. Like it just to me, I'm sorry, it's just so stupid. Like I just I find it funny, but

Jodi Lee: It is maravilh.

Annie Pullar: when you boil it down, I'm like, he's just a bloody melon moron. That's how I feel about him.

Jodi Lee: Think you bang on. I mean, it's just becoming a little bit sad how desperate this government is to court the youth vote. And we've spoken about it a lot on the podcast that they invited in young influencers into the budget lockup. A lot of the very highly conf controversial changes in the budget were sold as ways to help young people and first home buyers. So they're really targeting young people here. I think I'm still almost a young person.

Annie Pullar: Yeah, we can count. I I would count you as a as a young person.

Jodi Lee: Don't sound too convinced. I just it's it's embarrassing and f you know you like you talk about PR. What is PR? PR is common sense. And who thought a comedian dressed as Terry Irwin, let's face it, with her cleavage out, was a good look for the Prime Minister. And if you did think this could be fun and upbeat and a little bit quirky, surely you've had someone on your team ask for an exhaustive list of questions. And you have developed witty, prepared responses to each of them. Clearly that's not happened. And so you have to ask, why not? Like massive failure on behalf of the government, massive failure on behalf of Albo's staff. He's not Obama. You know, he doesn't have this cool swagger like he can hang out on the set of Sesame Street and like, you know, shoot some hoops. Like, this is Albo.

Annie Pullar: to me there were so many ways to respond to to you know the Kylie comments, to Japan's prime minister. And in both instances, he has chosen language that just does not fit the brief by any means. Like he has done how many press conference do you reckon in his time? Like he knows How to respond to people? Why choose to make a joke of it all? Like I just i i anyway.

Jodi Lee: I'd love to see a more s you know, a a slick-up politician, dare I say, like your favourite daddy, Chris Mint's.

Annie Pullar: Yes.

Jodi Lee: I wonder how someone like Chris Minnes would have fared in an interview like that. I still think

Annie Pullar: Yeah.

Jodi Lee: it would have been treacherous, but he's got more personality and he might have been able to duck and weave and show a bit of pizzazz. Albo just fell flat, it's embarrassing. I hope young people can see through this, is kind of what I'm trying to say. read the room and just like see it for what it is.

Annie Pullar: That's it. It's Read the Room. But speaking of Read the Room, I think the coalition probably needs to read the Room as well because they are apparently demanding the Australian Federal Police launch an investigation into who leaked these these documents and and how this all unfolded. I think that the AFP has a lot more pressing matters than two melons, but

Jodi Lee: already one melon. It was only well one.

Annie Pullar: I didn't even know that.

Jodi Lee: Is not okay.

Annie Pullar: Why lie about the number of melons? Anyway, I can't

Jodi Lee: Creative license, you know. He was he was obviously on a bit of a roll with his comedy shtick.

Annie Pullar: It looked like he was doing six seven. You know that thing that people do? Anyway.

Jodi Lee: god, on that note. I'm glad we were able to end on a bit of a brighter note, but that is our episode of covered for this week. Thank you so much for joining us.