Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
Speaker 1: It's Thursday, December five. Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson says every
Speaker 1: child should be taught using old fashioned methods proven to work.
Speaker 1: It comes after Naplan results surged in schools where direct
Speaker 1: instruction also known as explicit teaching was embraced. Economic growth
Speaker 1: has hit the skids. It's a lowest rate in history
Speaker 1: after seven consecutive quarters where we've all felt the pinch.
Speaker 1: Now the government is spending through the roof in the
Speaker 1: bid to avoid a recession. Those stories alive right now
Speaker 1: at the Australian dot com AU. The NRL is getting
Speaker 1: a new team and it'll be funded by Australian taxpayers.
Speaker 1: The addition of a Papua New Guinean footy team is
Speaker 1: part of the government's diplomatic endeavors in the Pacific. But
Speaker 1: is it enough to curb China's influence. That's today's story
Speaker 1: in Papua New Guinea, where tribal tensions run hot and
Speaker 1: occasionally turn into mashette powered bloodshed. There's one thing everybody
Speaker 1: agrees on.
Speaker 2: Kicks a cane, Marie are coming through.
Speaker 3: Oh what a tie.
Speaker 1: Rugby league is the best.
Speaker 3: Haf tried to cause his way. Ohm has he got
Speaker 3: that pull down? That's a big question.
Speaker 1: Mark and I think this is gonna be a try celebration.
Speaker 3: Referee says it's through.
Speaker 1: There's an annual festival of the boot the PNG Prime
Speaker 1: Minister's thirteen versus an Australian PM side. That's a bit
Speaker 1: like the Melbourne Cup in Australia. Compulsory viewing.
Speaker 2: You really haven't seen anything until you've seen P ANDNG.
Speaker 2: During a State of Origin game, the whole place is
Speaker 2: just glued to their TV screens.
Speaker 1: Most locals support Queensland and the Morons, but there are
Speaker 1: enough Blues fans to keep things interesting.
Speaker 2: It can actually get quite hairy after the games, and
Speaker 2: violence and riots and that type of thing can break out.
Speaker 2: They really did give Australian fans a run for their money.
Speaker 1: Papa Ne Guinea has a side in the Queensland Rugby
Speaker 1: League comp It's famous for fast, aggressive footy, but for
Speaker 1: nearly two decades P and g's governments have been campaigning
Speaker 1: for the country to have its own team in the
Speaker 1: National Rugby League. Now it's happening, and it's Australian taxpayers
Speaker 1: footing the bill. Ben Packham is the Australian's Foreign Affairs
Speaker 1: and Defense correspondent. He's usually on the front talking about
Speaker 1: matters of state, and it turns out this is a
Speaker 1: matter of state.
Speaker 2: The government supporting this bid for a couple of reasons. Firstly,
Speaker 2: it wants to bring the nations closer together through sport.
Speaker 2: P ANDNG is rugby league mad and this is something
Speaker 2: that Australia can do for P and G that no
Speaker 2: other country can do. Now under the surface, there's also
Speaker 2: another important reason, and that is China. The Australian government is,
Speaker 2: as Pennywong has said, in a constant state of competition
Speaker 2: with China across the Pacific, and we really need to
Speaker 2: make sure that China does not increase its influence and
Speaker 2: its footprint in Pacific nations, but particularly in Papua New Guinea,
Speaker 2: which is our closest neighbor.
Speaker 1: China is unashamedly seeking influence in the Pacific and is
Speaker 1: already a major trading partner of most of Australia's closest neighbors,
Speaker 1: as well as the biggest customer for minerals and commodities
Speaker 1: from timber to fish. China's next goal is to forge security,
Speaker 1: military and policing arrangements across the region, and in Papua
Speaker 1: New Guinea's Prime Minister James Marape, they found a leader
Speaker 1: who says he's willing to talk to any nation that
Speaker 1: will help his people. Marape doesn't want aid handouts. He
Speaker 1: wants development that will make Papua New Guinea, as he says,
Speaker 1: the world's richest Black Christian nation.
Speaker 2: When it comes to the electricity network of our closest neighbor,
Speaker 2: Australia has been left in the dark.
Speaker 1: Papa Your Guinea has revealed it had secret early talks
Speaker 1: with China on security and policing. That's sent Australia scrambling
Speaker 1: to be at the table.
Speaker 3: Australia promising two hundred million dollars to help bolster p
Speaker 3: Andng's judiciary and massively scale up its police force, which
Speaker 3: is grappling with escalating tribal violence.
Speaker 1: Prime Minister Albanezi on the Kokoda track alongside the PNG
Speaker 1: Prime Minister, we are the security partner of choice for
Speaker 1: Papa in New Guinea.
Speaker 3: We're family.
Speaker 1: I am very deeply. I called this royal privilege, being
Speaker 1: the first Prime Minis of my country to address the
Speaker 1: Australian Parliament.
Speaker 2: The negotiations for this agreement have been going for many
Speaker 2: months and Australia has been working with P and G
Speaker 2: on the nuts and bolts of how it will all work,
Speaker 2: as well as the NRL on the financials of how
Speaker 2: this team will be able to sustain itself, on grassroots
Speaker 2: game development and so forth. But the Australian government has
Speaker 2: also suggested that there is a security element to this agreement.
Speaker 2: Now we've seen the government do some interesting deals around
Speaker 2: the region, particularly with Tavaru. The government's Falow Pillar Union
Speaker 2: agreement with Tavaralu offers permanent visas and migration pathway for
Speaker 2: Tavaruans in return for a veto over Tavaru's future security
Speaker 2: agreement and so basically its sidelines China. Now the Australian
Speaker 2: government's also working on a similar agreement with NAU, which
Speaker 2: it hopes to finalize in coming weeks. The P and
Speaker 2: G NRL deal is another opportunity to put Australia's interest
Speaker 2: front and center in the Pacific, and the Australian government
Speaker 2: has intimated that yes, there are security aspects to this agreement.
Speaker 2: But PNG's Foreign Minister, Justin Chichenko has told The Australian that,
Speaker 2: in fact, Australia did not insist on a security guarantee
Speaker 2: in the final agreement that has been struck here. He
Speaker 2: says that yes, this was discussed at the highest levels,
Speaker 2: but ultimately it's totally irrelevant to what they're trying to
Speaker 2: achieve and they want to keep geopolitics out of this. Now.
Speaker 2: Australia does have a by lateral security agreement with Papua
Speaker 2: New Guinea which does include a commitment to consult on
Speaker 2: any other security tie ups that it might wish to do.
Speaker 2: But in terms of this NURL deal, according to the
Speaker 2: p and G Foreign Minister, there is no explicit security
Speaker 2: right of veto for Australia.
Speaker 1: It's a really interesting choice, isn't it. Ben. Presumably Australia
Speaker 1: could have chosen to come in quite hard to these
Speaker 1: negotiations and say, look, we will give you this thing
Speaker 1: that we know your people want an NRL team, but
Speaker 1: there's a price to pay, and this is it. If
Speaker 1: Australia has chosen not to take that path and is
Speaker 1: going about it a little bit more softly, what do
Speaker 1: you think that would say about Australia's choices.
Speaker 2: Well, they do call this sort of stuff soft diplomacy,
Speaker 2: so a more measured approach is probably warranted. Pat Conroy,
Speaker 2: the Australia's Minister for the Pacific, has done a great
Speaker 2: job here in bringing things to where we are, to
Speaker 2: the point that this agreement is going to be signed.
Speaker 2: The NRL's also been central to this in coming to
Speaker 2: the party. All will be revealed next week in terms
Speaker 2: of the agreement, but as far as we know at
Speaker 2: this stage, and according to Papua New Guinea, there are
Speaker 2: no explicit guarantees around security.
Speaker 1: Coming up. The gritty details of just how a taxpayer
Speaker 1: funded footy team will work rugby league can be pretty wild.
Speaker 2: Camera Monster will go to rehab tomorrow facing one hundred
Speaker 2: and thirty.
Speaker 3: I want all the kids out there tonight and my
Speaker 3: behavior was not okay.
Speaker 1: This is absolutely the last thing the NRL needed. Sex
Speaker 1: scandal NROL player Latrelle Mitchell has been issued with a
Speaker 1: breach notice days after a photo leaked onlines on a
Speaker 1: hotel room coffee table flashing a small ziploc bag full
Speaker 1: of white powder. Then we know from the amount of
Speaker 1: time NURL star spending the news that managing an NROL
Speaker 1: team is incredibly difficult. How's it going to work in practice?
Speaker 2: There's been quite a bit of progress on the sort
Speaker 2: of nuts and bolts of the issue, and just last
Speaker 2: week PNG are announced in its budget that players for
Speaker 2: this new franchise will have tax free status for the
Speaker 2: next decade, so that will assist in attracting Australian and
Speaker 2: other international players to the team. And you know what,
Speaker 2: Moresby isn't the safest place. I think is probably putting
Speaker 2: it mildly. They do have some domestic security issues and
Speaker 2: there will be a secure apartment complex built for the
Speaker 2: players and their family members so that they can live
Speaker 2: in the PNG capital without sort of fear of being
Speaker 2: the victims of crime or violence that sadly all too
Speaker 2: common in the country.
Speaker 1: Since China began flexing its muscle in the Pacific and
Speaker 1: actively courting our direct neighbors, Australia has done a number
Speaker 1: of things to try to develop a good feeling really
Speaker 1: among the people of the Pacific about Australia. One of
Speaker 1: those is the Pacific Australia Labor Mobility Scheme, where workers
Speaker 1: come from the islands to work in Australia and are
Speaker 1: able to send remittances back to their families, often being
Speaker 1: able to make a huge amount of money, but they
Speaker 1: wouldn't make in a lifetime at home from a few
Speaker 1: years of work here in Australia. What do you think
Speaker 1: about those people to people kind of links, Ben, It
Speaker 1: seems like the government's really kind of double down on
Speaker 1: that as its big idea. Do you think it's the
Speaker 1: right idea?
Speaker 2: I think it's very important. These sorts of things are
Speaker 2: very important. The Pacific Area of Labor Mobility scheme has
Speaker 2: been very successful in building those ties between Australia and
Speaker 2: Pacific countries. The government's also looking at potentially recruiting Pacific
Speaker 2: people into the Australian Defense Force. That's not quite there yet,
Speaker 2: but that would also serve to bring Australia closer to
Speaker 2: its specific neighbors. These are all sorts of things which
Speaker 2: China's not in a position to do. They really underscored
Speaker 2: the historic ties that Australia has with the region. We
Speaker 2: share history, we share a common language, we enjoy the
Speaker 2: same sports, and leveraging off those sorts of common interests
Speaker 2: and common values is really a no brainer when it
Speaker 2: comes to diplomacy.
Speaker 1: Ben Packham is the Australian's Foreign affairs and defense correspondent.
Speaker 1: You can read his exclusive interview with pg's foreign minister
Speaker 1: right now at the Australian dot com. Dou