5:00AMAugust 05, 2026.
Updated 22 hours ago
The Australian Business Network
First Anthony Albanese skipped a diplomatically-charged gala dinner celebrating Australia’s pivotal relationship with Japan.
Then the PM went on a podcast and made a gag — delivered with cupped hand gestures — about the two melons he was gifted by his Japanese counterpart, Sanae Takaichi – that nation’s first female prime minister.
And, if you can believe it, things get worse for champions of the relationship between Australia and its most important security partner in Asia.
Margin Call can reveal the diary clash that kept the PM from the dinner in Parliament House’s Great Hall, held to mark the 50th anniversary since then prime minister Malcolm Fraser and his Japanese counterpart Miki Takeo signed the Australia-Japan friendship and co-operation treaty, a transformative event in the relationship.
It wasn’t a meeting of the national security cabinet, a family crisis or any other easy-to-digest reason that could be put in a cable to Tokyo from the Japanese embassy in Canberra. The PM missed the dinner to instead attend an event hosted by Swedish music streaming giant Spotify in one of Parliament House’s alcoves. DJ Albo strikes again!
Spotify’s Australian head, Mikaela Lancaster, was thrilled to snare the PM that Tuesday night at the company’s annual lobbying exercise before the winter break, which included a performance by pop star Amy Shark.
Some champions of the bilateral relationship told Margin Call they didn’t expect the busy PM to sit through the whole event, but thought surely one of the wise heads in his office could have convinced him to make an appearance and say a few brief remarks.
“Surely he could have come for five minutes,” said one.
Our guess is he wouldn’t have missed it if Gough Whitlam, rather than Fraser, had signed the treaty in Nara back in 1976.
Before the pro-Beijing brigade gets too excited about any apparent breach in Australia’s relationship with China’s East Asian nemesis, we’ll note that a host of senior members of the Albanese government were along, including Foreign Minister Penny Wong (who spoke), Treasurer Jim Chalmers, Trade Minister Don Farrell and Resources and Northern Australia Minister Madeleine King.
Former prime minister John Howard led the Coalition representation. Nationals leader Matt Canavan was also there, along with the Opposition’s foreign affairs spokesman Ted O’Brien.
And guess who else? One Nation’s leader Pauline Hanson, who was spotted “kissing the ring” of Howard, according to one attendee.
“He looked genuinely shocked that she’d come up,” said another witness.
There has been a suggestion that Hanson’s presence contributed to the PM’s avoidance. The PM’s media team on Tuesday declined to comment on his decision.
Japan’s State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Iwao Horii, flew from Japan to attend, while his boss sent warm remarks via video. Takaichi was more than 7900km away in Tokyo (and had visited Canberra in May).
Meanwhile, Australia’s PM – who was all of 100m away at the Spotify concert – also sent a video message. And all this before melon-gate.
Read related topics:Anthony AlbaneseSpotify
Will GlasgowSenior journalist and Margin Call columnist