Pacific security a whole new ball game in bid to curb Chinese influence

Sport has become a weapon of choice in the fight against China influence in the Pacific.

Australian Rugby League Commission chairman Peter V’landys.

Rugby league is fast becoming Australia’s weapon of choice in the Pacific.

It’s been an area security experts believe has been neglected in decades gone by, but sport has become a major diplomacy tool for the Australian government to negate the rising influence of China in the region.

Australia’s has long sporting ties with the Pacific, but due to the a perceived lack of commercial viability, these ties have not been as deep as the sporting talent in the area has deserved. But times are changing and the Australian government is making it commercially viable for organisations’s like the National Rugby League.

As The Australian exclusively reported this week a historic Pasifika team – with tentacles reaching Samoa, Tonga, Fiji and Papua New Guinea – is on the horizon. The NRL is hoping to add this team by 2027 a clear and solid move for not only broadcast dollars but also national security.

The potential 18th team is expected to have a permanent base in Cairns in far north Queensland and be aided by the Australian government, which is understood to be prepared to tip in $20-25 million annually in the interests of national security in the Pacific.

“We have given a commitment to the Australian government – and indeed the Prime Minister (Anthony Albanese) – that we would look at a Pasifika team,” V’landys said. “We will be meeting our undertaking.”

A Papua New Guinea focused team would be a smart move according to some.

Mihai Sora, a research Fellow in the Lowy Institute’s Pacific Islands Program and Project Director of the Aus-PNG Network, said this 18th team move will not only benefit rugby league but especially Australia’s relations with a country like Papua New Guinea.

“Given that PNG wants to have a crack at fielding an NRL team, it’s Australia’s power to help support that,” Sora said.

But Sora believes that there is crucial work to be done at grassroots level in the region.

“Aside from elite level teams, I do think that sports development programs and communities are super important and probably doesn’t get as much airtime because you know, it doesn’t have the sort of the big names and it’s not that elite level,” Sora said. “But I think those grassroots programs have huge differences on individual people’s lives, and the pay-offs won’t be immediate.”

Sora, who has more than a decade’s experience as an Australian diplomat with postings to Solomon Islands and Indonesia, and was a Pacific analyst at the Office of National Assessments, says sport is key to developing relationships with Pasifika nations.

“The focus right now for the Albanese government on sports diplomacy in the Pacific is really underpinned by this recognition that Australia needs to develop stronger people-to-people ties,” Sora said.

“We’ve got good relationships at the political level, but quite thin relationships at the community level. So using sport, as a way to connect communities in Australia, with communities in the Pacific, it’s sort of like pushing on an open door is a huge part of Australian culture. But it is also a huge part of cultures in the Pacific countries, all who will have their own preferred national sports, some rugby league, some rugby union, some soccer. It’s something that connects us where we don’t have to convince them, it’s a good thing. We don’t have to prove, you know, common values and a shared sort of cultural connections, they’re already there.”

The sporting bodies of rugby union, netball, soccer have made headway in the Pacific with the help of the Australian government. As have sports like Australian rules football which has become a dominant sport in Nauru.

According to the AFL in 2021 AFL Nauru recorded 3190 participants with a population of 12,511 living on the island – just over 25 per cent of the island playing the game.

The AFL EGM Game development Rob Auld told The Weekend Australian the AFL facilitates and supports a wide range of programs in the Pacific region and works closely with partners such as the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, as well as local community engagement experts, to fund and deliver programs.

“Through our various programs and competitions, Australian football can play a role in having a positive, lasting social impact on communities and help to drive health, wellbeing and social cohesion outcomes,” Auld said.

“At the pre-Covid peak, well over 100,000 people across the region were participating in Australian football in some form including playing, coaching, umpiring, and volunteering. The bounce back has been really strong and we’re tracking well to get back to those numbers this year.

“Activities having an impact across the region include Auskick and competitions for juniors and seniors, which progress up to AFL National Talent Academies set up in PNG, Fiji and Nauru.

In 2021 Rugby Australia entered into partnership with DFAT’s multimillion-dollar PacificAus Sports program. It aims to create opportunities for Australian and Pacific athletes to train, play and grow together.

By 2022 both RA and the Australian government were key backers in Fiji’s entry into Super Rugby. Australia provided money to help ensure Fiji could enter a men’s team into Super Rugby Pacific and a women’s team into Australia’s Super W competition.

Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan told The Weekend Australian he has had several conversations with Prime Minister Albanese about the role rugby can play in the region and continues to discuss the organisation’s influence in the region.

“Rugby union is the sport in the Pacific from Sevens to the 15 game, and it connects the islands together,” McLennan said. “I had the good fortune of chatting to Prime Minister Albanese about rugby in the Pacific and he confirmed it is a priority. The Australian government and Rugby Australia are collectively investing to support the Fijian Drua and ultimately the region.”

“We absolutely view them as our brothers and sisters.”

Then there’s the Australian Olympic Committee, who in partnership with the Australian government, helped fund the preparations of the National Olympic Committees of Oceania for the Tokyo Games.

Australian Olympic Committee chief executive Matt Carroll believes the Olympic movement can serve a great role in the future investments.

“We can and we’ve had really good meetings with the DFAT about how the Olympic movement can play a very positive and important role,” Carroll said. “We had good discussions with that and we look forward to progressing further.”

China has used sporting infrastructure for extraordinary influence. The country’s ‘‘stadium diplomacy’’ has seen it build 142 stadiums across 61 countries.

In 1983 China contributed to the building of Samoa’s Apia Park Stadium. It also helped renovate the complex in 2007, 2015 and 2019. The Chinese helped build the Aquatic Centre in 2007 and the Faleata Multi Sport Centre in 2019.

In 2007 China spent $60 million on sports facilities for the Pacific Games in Samoa. And China’s money into sporting facilities has not stopped flowing. It has reportedly contributed approximately $337 million in funding for the Pacific Games in Honiara, which includes the construction of the main stadium. However the Australian government is also contributing.

Late last year acting Australian High Commissioner to the Solomon Islands Sally Anne Vincent signed a formal agreement for direct funding to the 2023 Pacific Games from the Australian Government.

“The Pacific Games are important to Australia because they are important to Solomon Islands and the Pacific Family,” Vincent said.

Australia are allocating $17 million to assist with the refurbishment of school dormitories, which will be used for athlete accommodation during the Games.

“I think right now, certainly the Australian government is looking to contribute where it can to big picture infrastructure,” Sora said. “So it is contributing to the costs of building the infrastructure for the Pacific Games in some parts, for example. China is taking the lead on that, but Australia is making a significant contribution.

Sora points out that Australia benefits massively from the contribution of Pacific Islanders in our professional sports. He says the way the Albanese government is using sport will only bolster our relationships but there is still some way to go.

“Australia still needs to convince Pacific countries that it cares about them,” he said.

“And if China turns around and starts to reduce its interest in the Pacific, that’ll be a real test of Australia’s commitment. We shouldn’t turn down the tap on some of these really positive activities.

“That’s the challenge for Australia is to maintain this level of interest and positive connection that we have now even though it was mostly triggered by the threat of increasing Chinese influence, Australia’s finding itself doing the right thing in the Pacific in a way that it hasn’t for a long time.”