PNG envoy praises Labor’s ‘incredible job’ in rare intervention into Australia’s election campaign

Papua New Guinea’s top diplomat has offered an extraordinary endorsement of Anthony Albanese and his government ahead of the May 3 election.

Papua New Guinea Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: Gary Ramage/NCA NewsWire

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Papua New Guinea’s top diplomat has offered an extraordinary endorsement of Anthony Albanese and his government ahead of the May 3 election, saying his country wants political continuity in Australia in the face of a less reliable America under Donald Trump.

Melbourne-born Justin Tkatchenko said the Prime Minister and his Labor government had been “an asset to our relationship, and we look forward to continuing to work with them”.

He said he did not have anything against Peter Dutton and the Coalition, but the Albanese government had taken the Australia-PNG relationship from “strength to strength”, and “done an incredible job in bringing the Pacific together”.

“Our relationship with the Labor government under Albanese leadership is one that we would like to continue,” Mr Tkatchenko said in an interview with The Australian.

“At the end of the day, it’s up to the Australian people to decide, because it’s their government that they’ll be moving forward with.

“But on the international partnership and friendship and security side of things, we see the current government as an asset to our relationship, and we look forward to continuing to work with them and growing our relationship bigger and better, especially with the challenges that we now face with the Trump administration and also with other issues in the Pacific.”

Mr Tkatchenko was speaking just hours after his Prime Minister James Marape fended off a vote of no confidence in the country’s parliament.

(L-R) Australian High Commissioner Jonathan Philp, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, PNG Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko, and his first secretary Tokana Hasavi Jnr. Picture: Supplied

The minister’s comments are highly unusual from a foreign official during another country’s election campaign, and Mr Tkatchenko cautioned he was not speaking for Mr Marape.

They follow a historic deal to grant PNG an NRL team sealed in December with $600m in Australian taxpayer support. The funding was on the proviso that PNG block China’s appeals to strengthen the nation’s security ties.

The Albanese and Marape governments also committed to signing a landmark defence deal in February paving the way for a greater Australian military presence in PNG, while Canberra has granted two $500m budget support loans to PNG in recent years.

The rare intervention into Australia’s election campaign comes as the Trump administration weighs a 50 per cent cut to the State Department’s budget, and the shuttering of up to 36 diplomatic posts around the world including several embassies in Pacific.

Mr Tkatchenko said he did not believe the US would de-prioritise its Port Moresby post, given the worsening strategic circumstances.

But he said other US missions could be in the firing line, including Tonga, Vanuatu, Solomon Island, making it all the more important Australia had a government that was closely engaged with the Pacific.

“If the US shut down their missions and embassies in those smaller countries, well, that will then lead for them to look elsewhere,” Mr Tkatchenko said.

Anthony Albanese shakes hands with Papua New Guinea counterpart James Marape on the Kokoda Track last year. Picture: NCA NewsWire via the Prime Minister’s Office

The close personal ties between Mr Albanese and Mr Marape were on display on Anzac Day last year as they walked the Kokoda Track in PNG together.

Mr Tkatchenko’s endorsement of Mr Albanese extended to his wider team and its work in strengthening Pacific ties.

“That’s another thing that Albanese can put his feather in his cap, and (Foreign Minister) Penny Wong as well. And especially (Minister for the Pacific) Pat Conroy. He has done a hell of a lot of work. And (Deputy Prime Minister) Richard Marles on defence and security.”

Mr Tkatchenko, a one-time television gardener who worked for former prime minister Bill Skate, renounced his Australian citizenship in 2006, as PNG’s elected officials must not have dual nationalities.