No action would be taken by the Japanese government over the incident, it reportedly said. The comments largely escaped scrutiny when the podcast was published, but they were later picked up by Japanese papers, before Australian media ran coverage. The coalition’s foreign affairs spokesman Ted O’Brien and his colleague, Senator James Paterson, this week wrote to Australian Federal Police commissioner Krissy Barrett and requested an investigation into how the leak occured. ”It is critically important that Australia’s bilateral partners believe that their confidential correspondence will be handled appropriately by the Australian government,” the letter said. Housing Minister Clare O’Neil responded to news of coaltion’s probe calls by saying the Liberals had “absolutely lost the plot”.