As the government sought to limit damage from the phone-tapping affair, a Liberal Party senior adviser issued a series of racially-loaded remarks about top Indonesian government figures, which have been reported prominently in the Indonesian press.

Liberal Party pollster Mark Textor, who is a close counsel to Prime Minister Tony Abbott, made the front page of one of Indonesia's most prominent media outlets, the Indonesian-language Kompas newspaper for his series of abusive comments, with one likening Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Marty Natalegawa to a ''1970s Pilipino [sic] porn star''.

The comments threatened to inflame sensitive relations between Canberra and Jakarta at time when Prime Minister Tony Abbott was moving to reassure President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono that Australia regrets any offence caused by the reports of unauthorised phone tapping.