A landmark $600 million deal for a Papua New Guinea team to enter the National Rugby League comes with an escape clause allowing the Australian government to immediately terminate the agreement if PNG strikes a security or policing pact with China or other rival nations over the next decade.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and PNG Prime Minister James Marape announced at a joint press conference in Sydney that a Port Moresby-based team will enter the NRL from 2028.
The PNG team is likely to want Xavier Coates to be its inaugural marquee signing.Credit: Getty
“Australia and PNG are the nearest of neighbours and we are the truest of friends,” Albanese said.
“We are bound by a history of shared sacrifice and a common commitment to a peaceful, stable and prosperous Pacific. And we are united of course by a love of rugby league. That’s why I’m delighted to announce the Australian government is supporting a PNG team to join the NRL competition from 2028.”
“Rugby league is PNG’s national sport and PNG deserves a national team. The new team will belong to the people of PNG and it will call Port Moresby home. It will have millions of people barracking for it from day one.”
The leaders hailed the deal as a historic milestone for the PNG-Australia relationship that will bond the nations together and provide a major economic boost to the Pacific’s most populous nation as it seeks to lift much of its population out of poverty.
There’s no questioning Papua New Guinea’s passion for rugby league.Credit: Getty
“What this is about, isn’t just the elite level,” Albanese said.
“This is about the grassroots level. It’s about economic development. It’s about the relationship between our peoples. It provides, as sport often does, an opportunity for people to succeed, not just in sport but in life.
“That is why this partnership isn’t just about Papua New Guinea, it’s also about our relationship with the Pacific.”
Australian taxpayers will provide $600 million over the next 10 years to help establish the team, with $120 million coming from existing Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade funding.
The PNG government has committed to building compound-style accommodation for players and offering tax-free salary benefits to lure star players to its capital, Port Moresby.
The Australian and PNG governments have signed a separate agreement on “shared strategic trust” that sits beside the franchise agreement between the NRL, Australia and PNG.
The exact terms of the strategic trust agreement are confidential and will not be released to the public.
“Today also confirms … our bilateral security agreement, which was signed just over a year ago in Canberra,” Albanese said.
“Since signing that agreement, we’ve made real progress with Australia providing tangible support to PNG’s internal security priorities … I think that today is a day where people will look back in five years, 10 years, 20 years and see that this was a day where the relationship between our nations was cemented even further into a new level.”
While there is no explicit clause granting Australia veto rights over security deals between PNG and other countries, government sources said the NRL agreement was “contingent” on PNG continuing to support the principle that security and policing arrangements are handled by Pacific nations including Australia.
The sources, who were not authorised to speak publicly, said the agreement allows the Australian government to withdraw financial support for PNG’s NRL team without supplying a reason until 2035.
The NRL would be required to terminate the PNG team’s franchise if the Australian government removes its support under the terms of the agreement.
“This is about diplomacy, this is about making Australia safer, this is about securing our status as the security partner of choice in the Pacific,” a senior government source said.
The government announced a new treaty earlier this week with Nauru that allows it to block China and other countries from striking any security or telecommunications deals with the tiny Pacific nation in exchange for $140 million in financial support from Australian taxpayers.
PNG’s Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko told this masthead last week that the agreement has “nothing to do with China” but Australian government officials have insisted there was a security element to the agreement.
A separate clause prohibits the NRL from asking the Australian government for more money within or after the 10-year funding period.
The logo, colours and name of the PNG team are yet to be determined.
One option is for the club to be called the PNG Hunters, the name given to the team that has been playing in the Queensland Cup competition since 2014.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and PNG counterpart James Marape discussed PNG’s NRL bid while walking the Kokoda Track in April.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
“I want to indicate to everyone here in Australia and back home, we’re not just filling the numbers for Anthony [Albanese] and James [Marape] to feel good,” Marape said.
“Far from it. We want to win the competition. Just like the Dolphins did in their first year of entry [in 2023], we will field a very strong team in the first game in 2028.
“As South Sydney lives on 100 years on from its birth, this one will live on way after you [Albanese] and me are gone. Our people forever bound in not only a shared love for rugby league, but a shared love for each other.”
It remains unclear whether PNG will be the NRL’s 18th or 19th team, given there is a desire to add another side as early as 2027.
The NRL remains in negotiations for a Perth-based franchise, which are continuing directly with the WA government after a consortium bid was rejected.
Sources said negotiations over the PNG team were up in the air until the May NRL “magic round” in May, when Pacific Minister Pat Conroy and Australian Rugby League chairman Peter V’landys struck an in-principle agreement for a team to enter the competition.
One of the likely signing targets for the franchise is Xavier Coates. The Melbourne, Queensland and Australian star was born in Port Moresby, has previously represented Fiji and, given he is only 23 years old, will likely be in his prime when the team enters the NRL.
His younger brother, Phillip, is also a rising star who represented the PNG Junior Kumuls in their recent draw with the Australian Schoolboys team.
As a sweetener to sign with PNG, players and staff will be granted tax-free status.
That will allow a marquee signing on a $1.2 million deal to save up to $550,000 a year.
The expansion of the NRL competition is expected to bring more money into the game and the existing clubs have argued for a share. They have been placated by the division of a $60 million license fee, which will come out of the $600 million Australian government payment.
