Host, Paul Turton: Well, the NRL is officially adding a 19th team to their lineup. Papua New Guinea will mount a team for the 2028 season.
Australia rugby league chair Peter V'Landys and their CEO, Andrew Abdo, travelled to Port Moresby to make the announcement. Alongside them was Pat Conroy, the Minister for Defence Industry and Pacific Island Affairs, also the Shortland MP. And he joins us from Honiara in the Solomon Islands, this morning. Minister, good morning, thanks for coming on.
Minister for Pacific Island Affairs, Pat Conroy: My pleasure.
Host: They say that Rugby League is a religion in Papua New Guinea. Have you seen evidence of that?
Minister: Oh, absolutely. The crowd at the national stadium, which is only holds 15 to 20,000 for the Prime Minister's 13 game, is louder than any State of Origin or grand final I have been to, they are fanatical about rugby league. And Prime Minister Marape has what I call a Nelson Mandela vision for his country.
There's over 800 tribes, 1000 languages spoken, and the one thing that unites this wonderfully diverse nation is a love of rugby league, so this project will bring the entire nation together. And that's great for their people-to-people links, but it's also great for our connections with Papua New Guinea.
Host: They are very diverse, aren't they, the population? You mentioned, the 800 tribes and the 1000 languages. And of course, there are regional conflicts. They flare up regularly in Papua New Guinea, but they all seem to be able to unite behind sport.
Minister: Absolutely. It is the most passionate fan base I've ever seen. And this will really transform the country, both from a national unity point of view, but also an economic development point of view. This will transform Port Moresby.
You'll see 5000 jobs created through this project. You're going to see 1000s of Australians flying up to watch their team lose to the powerhouse that will be PNG every home game. And that's going to be great for the country and great for their connections with Australia, given they're our closest neighbour, only four kilometres separates our two nations. You could swim to PNG, if you weren't worried about crocodiles.
Host: Good luck with that. The Australian Government will invest $600 million which goes beyond sport, I know, but why is Papua New Guinea so diplomatically and strategically important to Australia?
Minister: Well it's our closest neighbour, it's the biggest Pacific island nation, and so obviously their stability and prosperity will help determine our prosperity and stability. So, it's our interest to have a stable and growing country up there, given they are very close, people regularly cross over on tinnies. So, their stability is really important to us.
And secondly, we've been really open with the Australian people that there's an enduring contest in the region's influence between us and other nations around the world, including China and we want to be the partner of choice for the entire region, and we'll use every tool of statecraft to do that.
Whether it's people to people connection through Pacific labour schemes; whether it's foreign aid; whether it's trade; or whether it's sporting diplomacy. We'll use every tool to make sure Australia is the best friend to the Pacific so they don't need to look elsewhere for support and assistance.
I think most Australians really understand that the Solomon Island security pact with China that Scott Morrison allowed to happen when he was in government, really sent shockwaves throughout Australia, and people get it that we need to be really focused on our neighbourhood.
Host: I mentioned that you are in Honiara at the moment. Are you able to unwind any of those pre-existing relationships?
Minister: Well, we're working very hard to repair the relationship here, and we've made substantial progress over the last couple of years.
We had Prime Minister Manele for a visit last year. In fact, I took him and two of his Ministers to the second State of Origin game last year, which they loved.
And we're doing lots with economic development here, we're the, once you exclude round log exports, we're the biggest export destination for Solomon Islands industry. Fifty percent of tourists in Solomon Islands come from Australia, so we're a really strong economic and development partner.
And so, I'm here to announce more funding for roads. The roads are pretty fragile here, and that connectivity is important. And I'm also announcing support that they'll be Hosting the Pacific Island Forum Leaders' Summit later this year.
So, it's a really good opportunity to work together to showcase a beautiful country with a lot of shared history with Australia.
Host: We get good bang for our buck for this relief and humanitarian investment that we make in in the Pacific Islands. What, for example, has PNG promised in return for the $600 million?
Minister: Well, we've been very clear that we could only do this deal because it's underpinned between strategic trust between the two nations. What that means, in sort of more plain language, is Prime Minister Marape and his government have been very clear that they will continue to look to their traditional security partners, mainly Australia, for their policing and defence needs.
As part of this arrangement, that strategic trust is there, that they won't look elsewhere for security partners. And we've negotiated a bilateral security agreement along those lines, and in fact, we're negotiating a defence treaty with Papua New Guinea right now.
So, all this means that we have a shared approach to security, and that's a very worthwhile investment, and it's worth investing a lot to make sure that we stay together, because the alternative is far worse, not just for us, but for Papua New Guinea. A fractious, divided region where people are signing security pacts with nations outside the Pacific. That's not in our interests, and certainly I believe not in the interests of Pacific nations.
Host: Minister. Conflicts continue around the world, the Middle East, of course, and the Prime Minister has been criticized for being late to show his support for the American strikes on Iran to try and dent their nuclear ambitions. Are you comfortable with the government's position in regard to the Middle East?
Minister: Absolutely, and I think there's a bit of rewriting the history from some commentators, we released a statement from the government very shortly after the strike, saying we, and even before the strikes, we called for Iran to give up its aspirations to secure nuclear weapons. So that happened even before the strikes by the United States.
After the strike by the United States, we released a statement saying that we obviously support actions to stop Iran securing nuclear weapons. And while the actions by the United States were unilateral, we did support them, and that was followed shortly by Prime Minister Albanese and Foreign Minister Wong doing a press conference along those lines.
But I think there's a bit of agitation in some of the papers, like the Australian which just isn't based on facts. We released a statement very shortly after the strikes and then the PM stood up.
Host: Minister here in Newcastle, there have been concerns raised by the Greens this week, of course, Defence signed a contract with Kongsberg Defence Australia to establish an $850 million guided weapons production factory at the Newcastle Airport.
The Greens have raised the spectre of the facility exporting weapons to other countries like the USA and Israel, and also about our region becoming a target for attack. Is that something you considered in selecting the location?
Minister: Well, Kongsberg selected the location, and they looked at 22 sites around the country, and it's quite a compliment to our region that they concluded that we were the best region to secure this very high-tech facility.
But I'll be frank with you, Paul, I'm really, in fact, I'm angry about the Greens continuing to lie about this project. Firstly, it's next to the RAAF Williamtown, so we've got a very major Defence establishment here already, but councillor McCabe and the Greens continue to lie about what we're doing at that site.
I saw comments from her suggesting that we're going to be exporting missiles to Israel from this facility, again, that's a lie. It builds on their earlier lies, where they claimed that Varleys were producing parts for missiles that Israel was using to strike apartment buildings in Gaza, which was just again, an outright lie that had a horrible impact on morale in that workforce.
The facility that's being built is being built in Port Stevens Council next to the airport. It will produce the sort of the fuselage and missile, not the explosive warhead. And it's very high-tech work, and it will equip the Royal Australian Navy with the most advanced anti-ship missiles in the world and help equip the Air Force. And it's only the second facility in the world, first outside Norway that will produce these advanced cruise missiles.
It's going to create 500 jobs in the construction, 100 advanced jobs in the manufacturing phase. And this is the sort of work that we want in our region. It's high skill, high tech that helps make Australia safer.
Calling on the Greens to stop lying and spreading misinformation about what this project does, because it will deter investment in our region, and it will actually make people less supportive of a project that's essential for our national defence.
And it also contradicts the Green's own policy platform during the federal election, they called for domestic manufacturing of missiles. We're doing that now, and now they're running this very silly and short-sighted campaign.
Host: Pat Conroy, thank you.