Kerry packer code#
Kerry packer professional#

The government needs to deeply consider how such a financial commitment might be made and the benefits it might provide. Of course, these reasons alone may not be sufficient to justify such an investment. No other country, including China, can play this card. To put it in starker terms, a spot in the NRL is something that only Australia can offer PNG. Playing a decisive role in helping PNG realise its NRL aspirations would be a massive soft power win for Australia.

Popular support in PNG for an NRL team – backed by Australia – could help ensure that PNG is more likely to align itself with Australia than any other power. In the case of a PNG NRL team, it would cement existing cultural affinity between Australians and Papuans. Subsidising sport can help build a diverse web of connections – official, cultural, personal – between Australia and regional partners.

Kerry packer code#

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) already supports sports initiatives in the Pacific through the PacificAusSports program, including funding the PNG Hunters and the Fijian Kaivitia Silktails, both of which participate in semi-professional, second-tier rugby league competitions in Australia.Īcross the code divide, the New Zealand Government also provided support to Moana Pasifika, which represented Pacific communities in the Super Rugby Pacific competition.įor Australia, sports diplomacy initiatives are already one element of a broader strategy, which also includes church and cultural partnerships, to boost its soft power in the region.

After watching the third State of Origin game at the Pacific Islands Forum with fellow leaders, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese again raised the prospect of a Pacific NRL team. With strategic competition in the Pacific heating up, the idea that the Australian Government should subsidise a PNG NRL team has re-emerged.

Kerry packer professional#

Like everything in professional sport though, economics will ultimately decide what happens next. For rugby league fans everywhere, but especially in PNG, this is good news.

The PNG Government backs the bid and considerable effort has already been devoted to establishing a club. With the National Rugby League (NRL) marching towards 18 teams, Papua New Guinea (PNG) has again emerged as a contender for a team in the competition. It’s no surprise then that rugby league finds itself back at the centre of politics – this time, in Australian foreign policy. In a similar vein, the game’s most tumultuous period, the ‘ Super League War’ of the 1990s, was driven by rivalry between Kerry Packer and Rupert Murdoch’s media empires. The game’s original schism with rugby union itself reflected broader political divides between the working class of England’s north and the middle and upper class in the south. Stepping in to help Papua New Guinea field an NRL team would be a massive soft power win for Australia, Hugh Piper writes.Īs this week’s news cycle shows, rugby league is no stranger to politics.