Penny Wong tackled by Wallabies great David Pocock over $600m NRL code confusion
That mostly means rugby union, essentially, not that Wong seemed to understand the issue when she came under heavy fire from former Wallabies captain and independent senator David Pocock in a Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee Senate estimates hearing on Thursday.
As revealed in this space earlier this year, an NRL executive has been spouting for months that the $250m Pacific Pathways Plan is all about pinching the best young rugby union talent in Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga and funnelling it towards the PNG Chiefs, which enters the NRL premiership in 2028.
Pocock grilled government officials on hand, asking the question that needed to be asked: why is the Australian taxpayer funding the development of an NRL franchise at the expense of other sports in the region?
“Rugby league is huge in PNG,” he said. “Not that big in some of these countries in which you are essentially trying to set up rugby league academies to feed the NRL.”
While supportive of an NRL franchise in Port Moresby, Pocock wanted answers about whether the Prime Minister’s Office or cabinet knew it would be funding rugby league’s purge of talent in rugby union strongholds.
“I assume there’s this union-league thing which, as a South Australian, I’m happily ignorant about Senator,” Wong chuckled.
“But the concept of the team, which was important to (PNG) Prime Minister Marape, meant there was a recognition of the importance of seeking to ensure there was a pipeline of players to that (PNG) team. I can say at a political level, that has been an early concept. Does that make sense?”
Pocock: “It really doesn’t. Because I’m not sure how Tonga, Samoa and Fijian players want to play in Port Moresby. It seems like an idea has been hatched between the government and the NRL to essentially expand the NRL’s footprint into Pacific Island nations.”
Wong interjected, exposing her ignorance about the issue.
“You mention Samoa and Tonga,” Wong said. “All competing in the rugby league World Cup next year.”
Whose players, Senator, learned to play rugby league in Australia after most were either born here or New Zealand.
It’s quite alarming when $250m of taxpayer money is in the hands of someone who doesn’t know the differences, nor nuances, between the rugby codes.
More Coverage
Macquarie’s monster port deal shaping up as bigger test
Labor senator Penny Wong has confirmed that almost half of the Albanese government’s $600m in funding for an NRL franchise in Papua New Guinea will be directed towards poaching the Pacific’s best talent from other codes.