K1.5b NRL deal ‘nothing to do with China’
05 December 2024
CHRIS BARRETT
| Brisbane Times ($) | Extract
BRISBANE - The launching of a National Rugby League team in Papua New Guinea has “nothing to do with China”, according to the Pacific nation’s foreign minister, Justin Tkatchenko.
Tkatchenko yesterday revealed new details about the NRL competition’s historic expansion to include PNG, Australia’s nearest neighbour.
The NRL is expected to announce the entry of a PNG team in 2028 as early as next week after an agreement was struck between the Australian Rugby League Commission and the Australian and PNG governments.
The Albanese government will commit K1.5 billion ($600 million) over 10 years towards the expansion venture and the development of the game as Australia bids to deepen relations with PNG and ward off the influence of China in the Pacific region.
In an exclusive interview, Tkatchenko said the PNG government will also set aside K100 million kina ($38 million) in its budget next year to begin building facilities for the new team.
These will include a high-performance centre at the national stadium and a secure accommodation village.
Another K300 million ($110m) has been allocated for the three following years.
Players signed to the franchise would be exempt from paying tax to lure them to PNG under amendments to income tax law introduced to parliament last week while PNG’s junior rugby league pathways would be boosted by the NRL deal, Tkatchenko said.
Rugby league is the national sport of PNG.
“It will really make, I think, a lot of dreams come true for thousands of Papua New Guineans,” Tkatchenko said.
“For PNG, it will really boost our economy as well. It will also put PNG more on the map.”
Tkatchenko said links with Australia are probably at their best since the country’s independence in 1975.
There was a new bilateral security pact signed mid-year and the delivery of the NRL franchise would make ties “stronger than ever before” and bed-in the relationship for the future, no matter who was prime minister or in government, he added.
“Australia has been concerned and has discussed the issue of China on its influence in the Pacific and PNG,” Tkatchenko said.
But PNG had “gone into this purely for the sport, purely to get the NRL team,” insisting the deal was “purely for our relationship with Australia”.
“China has nothing to do with this at all. I’m very clear on that. This is all about Australia and PNG’s relationship with nothing else in between.”
Both nations supporting the announcement of this sporting intention are professed and practicing democracies.
That so, can the proponents spell out details of the scope of involvement embraced in the "high-performance centre at the national stadium and a secure accommodation village"?
Posted by: Lindsay F Bond | 05 December 2024 at 09:02 AM