PNG minister says $600m NRL deal ‘nothing to do with China’

The launching of a National Rugby League team in Papua New Guinea has “nothing to do with China”, according to the Pacific nation’s foreign minister, as he reveals new details about the competition’s historic expansion to Australia’s nearest neighbour.

The NRL is expected to announce the entry of a PNG team in 2028 as early as next week after an agreement was struck between the Australian Rugby League Commission and the Australian and PNG governments.

Fans pack the national stadium in Port Moresby to watch the PNG Kumuls.Credit: Getty Images

The Albanese government will commit $600 million over 10 years towards the expansion venture and the development of the game as it bids to deepen relations with PNG and ward off the influence of China in the Pacific region.

In an exclusive interview, PNG’s Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko said the government in Port Moresby had also set aside 100 million kina ($38 million) in its budget next year to begin building facilities for the new team including a high-performance centre at the national stadium and a secure accommodation village. A further 300 million kina has been allocated for three following years.

Players signed to the franchise would be exempt from paying tax to lure them to PNG under amendments to income tax law introduced to parliament last week while the country’s junior rugby league pathways would be boosted by the NRL deal, Tkatchenko said.

Rugby league is the national sport of PNG.

“It will really make, I think, a lot of dreams come true for thousands of Papua New Guineans,” he said.

“For PNG, it will really boost our economy as well. It will also put PNG more on the map.”

Tkatchenko said links with Australia were probably at their best since the country’s independence in 1975, following the mid-year signing of a new bilateral security pact. The delivery of an NRL franchise to Port Moresby would make ties “stronger than ever before” and bed in the relationship for the future, no matter who was prime minister or in government, he added.

The foreign minister said: “Australia has been concerned and has discussed the issue of China on its influence in the Pacific and Papua New Guinea”.

PNG Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko, left, and Prime Minister James Marape in Canberra in February.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

But he said PNG had “gone into this purely for the sport, purely to get the NRL team”, insisting the deal was “purely for our relationship with Australia”.

“China has nothing to do with this at all. I’m very clear on that. This is all about Australia and PNG’s relationship with nothing else in between.”

It’s understood that there are arrangements relating to security outside the deal to take an NRL franchise to PNG, which is viewed by Australian government officials as part of a larger push to lock Australia in as the Pacific’s chosen security partner and lock China out of policing and military tie-ups in the region.

They have privately stressed the benefits of sporting links with PNG, believing it gives Australia a powerful bargaining chip because of the cultural importance of rugby league to the nation of 12 million people.

“The Australian government, the PNG government and the NRL are aligned on the fundamentals of an agreement. We are very optimistic that we will be in a position to sign an agreement shortly,” said a spokesperson for Minister for International Development and the Pacific Pat Conroy.

PNG Prime Minister James Marape indicated in October that there was a security element to the Australian government supporting an NRL team but said it was not the “main feature” of the deal.

“I would not be in a position to say that that’s the only reason why this has been happening,” he told the ABC. “For PNG and Australia, we have deeper sentimental values. Both nations love rugby league, both nations have a strong affinity. And all in all, we’re working towards far bigger issues than just the security aspect to it.”

Speaking to this masthead, Tkatchenko said: “This is all about friendship, this is all about partnership, this is all about us working together in the name of sport. This is nothing to do with geopolitics or anything like that.

Rugby league is the national sport in Papua New Guinea.Credit: Getty Images

“China is our economic and trade partner and that is it. It makes it easier that everybody knows. It’s no hidden secret or anything like that. It’s very clear. We work with China on our economic prosperity and trade and infrastructure and we work with Australia [on] the same. But on the security issues of policing and defence ... we stick with who we know and who we trust and who we want to work with now and into the future.”

He said PNG was committed to implementing the bilateral security agreement with Australia. “We are not entering into anything when it comes security with the Chinese government,” he said.

Marape is due to speak in Sydney on Monday at the annual PNG Investment Conference and the country’s historic inclusion in the NRL is expected to be confirmed in the same week.

Not all the funding from the Australian government will go to PNG. It is expected that $60 million of the Australian government’s package will be allocated to the ARL Commission as a licence fee for a new team and distributed among the existing 17 NRL clubs.

PNG would be the NRL’s 19th team, joining another anticipated new entity, the Perth-based Western Bears, although their entry to the competition in 2027 is contingent on the ARL Commission agreeing to a deal with the Western Australia government.

ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys met with Western Australian Premier Roger Cook in Sydney a fortnight ago and requested the the state government contribute $120 million over 10 years to establish a team on the west coast.

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