Anthony Albanese jokes about ‘taking over’ NZ in latest clanger from problem-laden podcast appearance

Another eyebrow raising moment has emerged from Anthony Albanese’s now-infamous Bush Deep podcast interview after the Prime Minister joked that Australia could “take over” New Zealand.

The remark came to light as the problem-laden podcast appearance was thrust back into the headlines amid mounting political pressure for Mr Albanese to apologise to Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi over a reference he made about two prized melons she gifted him.

The controversy - dubbed ‘Melongate’ - stems from hand gestures the Prime Minister made towards his chest while explaining to Ms Osborne during the interview he had received two high-end Crown melons from Ms Takaichi during her official visit to Australia.

Mr Albanese has since doubled down on the comments, insisting he did not intend for the comments to be taken as sexual innuendo, and has refused to apologise to his Japanese counterpart.

But that was only one of the moments from the conversation that would come back to haunt Mr Albanese.

Towards the end of the podcast interview, after topping up his glass of scotch, Mr Albanese joked about Australia’s constitutional history and the fact that New Zealand is mentioned in the Australian Constitution.

“We could take over New Zealand. It’s still in our Constitution. We can just do it. Sorry,’’ Mr Albanese laughed and told Ms Osborne.

The joke refers to clause six of the Australian Constitution, which lists New Zealand among the colonies that could constitute “the States” of the Commonwealth.

The remark was delivered as a joke, but Ms Osborne said she was surprised the Prime Ministers comment about New Zealand didn’t get the same level of attention.

“He said people need to stop blowing s..t up. All of that. He said he could just take over New Zealand if he wanted. No one cared,” she said on Thursday night on Mark Bouris’ podcast.

During the Straight Talk podcast appearance, Ms Osborne said she was shocked that Mr Albanese’s comments about choosing Kylie Minogue in a game of “shag, marry, date” were seen as more problematic than “taking over” New Zealand.

“I didn’t realise that that would be controversial. No, I thought it was harmless,’’ she said.

“He said, you know, ‘I could just take over New Zealand tomorrow if I wanted’. That’s in there, and no one cares because he wants to shag Kylie.”

Ms Osborne also said Mr Albanese responded directly to her invitation asking him for an interview on Bush Deep.

The Prime Minister earlier said on Friday that he was not responsible for any comments Ms Osborne made on the podcast.

“He’s watched the show, he knows my podcast. So he knew what he was coming into,” Ms Osborne said.

When asked by Mr Bouris if she believes she got the real Anthony Albanese or “the alter ego of him trying not to be the Prime Minister and be Anthony Albanese, the Aussie”, she said she got “the real one.”

“I think I got the real one,” Ms Osborne said.

Ms Osborne added that the pair shared a glass of scotch before recording the podcast episode.

“So yeah, we brought out the whiskeys and had a drink, had a cheers and had a chat,” she said.

“I said, ‘oh, normally I have a scotch when I do these’. And he’s like, ‘we’ll have a scotch’. He said, ‘bring the girl a scotch’. He said, ‘actually, I’ll have a scotch, too’.”