QRL: Why Anthony Albanese stepped in to preserve PNG match

Anthony Albanese has intervened to ensure a QRL game will be played in Port Moresby as scheduled, despite safety fears. Here’s why.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has confirmed the federal government would “support any request for security” from the Queensland Rugby League for a scheduled match in Port Moresby, in the latest flex of Australian sport diplomacy.

The brewing stoush between the QRL and the Mackay Cutters comes amid the club’s refusal to travel to Papua New Guinea for their match against the PNG Hunters on the weekend.

Australia’s official advise for travel to the PNG remains at level 3 — the second-highest level — with people told to “reconsider their need to travel” due to concerns of unrest amid the election wash-up.

Mr Albanese, after speaking to Defence Minister Richard Marles and the QRL, confirmed the government would “support any request for security” for the match.

“The people of PNG are passionate in their support for Rugby League and our relationship is of critical importance to Australia,” he said.

While it may seem strange for the Prime Minister to weigh in on a stoush between the QRL and a regional club, Mr Albanese has vocalised his support for establishing strong rugby league connections between Australia and the PNG before.

And it comes at a time when China is increasingly muscling its way into the Pacific, with experts decrying Australia’s faltering influence in the region.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (left) and Defence Minister Richard Marles

At the Pacific Islands Forum in July Mr Albanese went as far as giving in-principle support to PNG Prime Minister James Marape’s request for an NRL team — the 18th for the league if it comes to fruition.

“We have to look at a team eventually in the NRL for PNG, and perhaps from the Pacific as well,” Mr Albanese said.

At a press conference in Brisbane last week Mr Albanese confirmed he had formally invited Mr Marape to attend the PM’s XIII Game to be held in the Queensland capital in September.

Defence Minister Richard Marles, in his 2021 book Tides That Bind: Australia in the Pacific, wrote that a team from PNG in the NRL would put Australia’s relationship with the Pacific nation on a “different plane”.

“The cost associated with such a plan would represent the best-value spend Australia could ever make in building that relationship,” he wrote.

“Accordingly, the fulfilment of Papua New Guinea’s ambitions to field a team in the NRL must be viewed in terms of an Australian national imperative.

“We have soft power options aplenty and we need to start seizing these opportunities now.”

The Albanese government has made clear sport diplomacy and its role in strengthening soft power will be significant in the relationship rebuild between Australia and the Pacific.