Authorities will need to overcome major challenges to set up an NRL team in the ’murder capital’ of the Pacific.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his Papua New Guinean (PNG) counterpart, James Marape, have officially announced the long-awaited $600 million to support PNG’s entry into the National Rugby League (NRL) from 2028.
The team, based in the developing Port Moresby, requires substantial work from both sides to overcome infrastructure and safety issues.
“Rugby league is PNG’s national sport, and PNG deserves a national team,” said Labor Prime Minister Albanese at a joint press conference with Marape in Sydney on Dec. 12.
Australia’s financial support comes as part of a broader strategy to bolster PNG’s relationship with Australia, and create a bulwark against Beijing establishing a military or police presence in the Pacific nation, which lies a few hundred metres north of Australia.
Albanese stressed that the initiative aims to foster grassroots development, economic growth, and regional unity. It complements existing health and education programs and will involve PNG, Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa.
“For us, it’s not just sport and sport commerce, and it is deeply national unity strategy, in the face of our 50th independence anniversary next year, uniting the most diverse nation on the face of planet Earth,” said Marape.
The deal also has an unpublished second agreement, cited by AAP, that keeps Australia as the primary security partner of the PNG, meaning if the Pacific government chooses Beijing over Australia the deal can be effectively called off.
Just Sports Or A Strategic Geopolitical Play?
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has made overt moves to build influence in the South Pacific region, notably with the Solomon Islands, where the CCP’s military arm signed a security deal in 2022 with the previous leadership.
The deal would have allowed the CCP’s People’s Liberation Army-Navy to send weapons, troops, and naval ships to the island. Beijing’s ambitions have been met by democratic leaders with their own diplomatic efforts across the 20 or more Pacific governments.
Although they did not make it overtly clear, both prime ministers acknowledged that Pacific security was on their minds.
“It just goes bigger than just rugby league in sport. It is national development, national unity, regional unity. PNG, Australia unity, our security conversations,” Marape stressed, saying the funding would help galvanise schooling, investment, and professional development opportunities for locals.
Marape encouraged Australians to look beyond the next few years and into the far future, saying this would be a turning point for the developing nation.
PNG Leaders ‘Bets His Life’ on Improving Safety
A key concern for the NRL expansion is player safety.
Port Moresby has the 12th highest murder rate in the world among cities at 54 murders among 100,000 people, it is also often consumed by civil strife.
PNG Prime Minister Marape has assured potential players and officials that their safety is a top priority.
“Security is all part of the mix. This is not just an event, but a lifestyle transformation for PNG. We saw the positive impact of APEC 2018 on Port Moresby, and we aim to replicate that with the NRL. Port Moresby will be a safer and cleaner city, capable of hosting international events.”
“I can bet my life on it. It’s in my own national interest to make sure PNG is safer,” he said.
To Compliment Existing Ties
Meanwhile, Albanese also said the plan would work in line with the bilateral security agreement signed just over a year ago in Canberra.
“Since signing that landmark agreement, we’ve made real progress with Australia, providing tangible support to PNG internal security priorities, and just this week, we have opened our Pacific policing initiative training facility in Pinkham bar in Brisbane, providing support for training in policing right across the Pacific,” he added.
The $400 million initiative announced last week will focus on training new police officers and will also act as a coordination hub, providing Pacific nations with additional support during major events or crises.
Albanese repeatedly stressed that Australia was Papua New Guinea’s “security partner of choice.”
Marape added that with this move, “We want to preserve our Pacific. Keeping it safe, peaceful and good for all of us to live in, especially our children.”
Will it Work?
The move comes just days after the Labor government announced $140 million for the tiny Pacific nation of Nauru that will give Australia veto power over future potential security arrangements.
“Taxpayers money is spent on far worse things than 10 years of rugby league between Australia and Papua New Guinea,” said Michael Shoebridge, director of Strategic Analysis Australia.
“The incredible waste of $9 billion for one Hunter Frigate would be an example,” he told The Epoch Times.
Shoebridge said the rugby league plan was a “good move” because what connected Australia and its Pacific neighbours was sporting and cultural ties.
“Connecting our two countries with a thing that both people are very passionate about, I think does make good political and societal sense,” he said.
“But it’s going to be complicated to make it work, because of the distances involved, and also having rugby league teams out of Australia and New Zealand play up in Papua New Guinea, because there’s a whole lot of security and other wrapping that has to go around that.”