Australia to spend US$385 million on PNG rugby league team with eye on China
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Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape speaking as Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Australian Rugby League Commission chairman Peter V'landys listen at a press conference in Sydney on Dec 12, 2024.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
SYDNEY – Australia will spend US$385 million (S$517 million) to establish a team from Papua New Guinea in its rugby league competition, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Dec 12, a move designed to help ward off China.
Papua New Guinea has long lobbied for a side in Australia’s National Rugby League but safety fears and a lack of funding in the Pacific nation had thwarted the idea until now.
Australia will splash the cash on the franchise as it looks to bolster ties with a northern neighbour that has also been courted by China.
“We are united by a love of rugby league,” Mr Albanese said.
“I am delighted to announce the Australian government is supporting a PNG team to join the National Rugby League competition. I know it will have millions of proud fans barracking for it from Day 1.”
Rugby league borders on a national obsession in Papua New Guinea, where adults and children play on muddy fields using plastic bottles stuffed with grass.
Promising athletes are snapped up to play professionally in Australia and England.
Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape said the team – who are due to enter the competition “no later” than 2028 – would “unite” the nation.
“To embrace a team from Papua New Guinea is monumental,” he said alongside Mr Albanese.
“What you are gifting to us in the licence to have a team goes to the heart of uniting our diverse country. It is national development, national unity, regional unity. All is dovetailed into this one team to unite our country.”
The side will be based in Papua New Guinea’s capital Port Moresby, a city with a reputation for violence and poverty.
Foreign players and their families will be housed in gated compounds and offered broad tax incentives to sweeten the deal and build a competitive roster.
Australia has been signing security deals, dishing out aid funding and ramping up diplomatic visits to cement its influence in the South Pacific.
It is not the first nation to use the “soft power” of sports diplomacy in the region.
China spent about US$53 million building a 10,000-seat athletics stadium in Solomon Islands ahead of the 2023 Pacific Games. Solomon Islands had broken off diplomatic ties with Chinese Taipei in 2019 and signed a security deal with China in 2022.
The Dec 12 rugby league deal was announced as a long-awaited bilateral security agreement between Australia and Papua New Guinea came into force.
Signed in December 2023, it aims to help Papua New Guinea’s overwhelmed security forces contain arms trafficking, drug smuggling and tribal violence.
“Australia and PNG are vital to each other’s future. Australia is proud to be PNG’s primary security and development partner,” added Mr Albanese. AFP