Election 2025: Peter Dutton brushes aside PNG backing for Anthony Albanese

Peter Dutton has shrugged off an extraordinary endorsement of Anthony Albanese by PNG’s Foreign Minister, describing Melbourne-born Justin Tkatchenko as a ‘colourful character’.

Papua New Guinea Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko, left, PNG Deputy Prime Minister John Rosso, Defence Minister Richard Marles and Foreign Minister Penny Wong in Port Moresby. Picture: DFAT

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Peter Dutton has brushed aside an extraordinary endorsement of Anthony Albanese by one of Papua New Guinea’s most senior leaders, describing the country’s Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko as a “colourful character” after he declared the Prime Minister was doing an “incredible job” and he hoped he was re-elected.

The Opposition Leader said he could work “very effectively” with PNG if the Coalition won the May 3 poll, after the Melbourne-born Mr Tkatchenko said his country wanted political continuity in Australia in the face of a less reliable America under Donald Trump.

Mr Dutton said he had known the former television gardener-turned-PNG politician for about 20 years, and had long-standing relationships with other key PNG leaders.

“He’s a colourful character. He’s very colourful up in PNG and he’s a friend of our country, so we can work very effectively with the government,” he said.

“I’ve had friendships with successive prime ministers in PNG, and Justin’s a good friend of our country, and obviously from Melbourne originally, and he’s doing a good job up there.”

Peter Dutton and opposition environment spokesman Jonathon Duniam visit a new home site in the Melbourne suburb of Wantirna on Wednesday. Picture: Richard Dobson / Newswire

Mr Tkatchenko told The Australian on Wednesday night he did not have anything against Mr Dutton or 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.

“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.”

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Labor had worked hard to repair Australia’s relationship with the Pacific, while Mr Dutton had joked about the threat of climate change for island nations and made the largest cuts to foreign aid in Australia’s history.

Mr Tkatchenko’s comments are highly unusual from a foreign official during another country’s election campaign, and he 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 in February to signing a landmark defence deal 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.

Anthony Albanese and his PNG counterpart James Marape. Picture: PMO

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 the 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.

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 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.