Australia must demand answers on Asian Development Bank funding in Papua New Guinea

And there's an even greater sense of urgency now that the PNG government is planning a massive national roadworks program over the next decade or more which is worth around K20 billion (A$8 billion).

Just how such a program can be funded at a time when PNG's debt-to-GDP ratio is around 50%, and headed for an eye-watering 60%-plus in the near future, remains to be seen.

But the very fact that it is now national government policy makes it even more urgent for Australia, along with New Zealand, to act.

The federal government needs to urgently call a 'virtual summit' with Australian construction companies, engineers, architects and planners to get an up-to-date assessment on the full extent of PRC companies' dominance in the government construction sector, including ADB-funded projects. It will be shocked by what it will hear.

It also needs to engage with the New Zealand construction sector and, most importantly, with PNG's construction industry, which is suffering just as much from the growing dominance of Chinese companies on ADB tenders and on projects funded by the PNG national and provincial governments.

Australia needs to then engage with the ADB and with the highest levels of the PNG government and insist on a level playing field on every tender process, especially for road, airport and port projects.

It also needs to consider offering incentives to Australian and PNG companies to engage robustly in the tender process, and in the training of PNG apprentices, including in the TAFE system in Australia. If need be, concessional loans should be made available to both Australian and PNG companies to get right in the game and compete with the PRC construction companies that are well entrenched in PNG.

Yes, the recently established Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific will help Australian and PNG companies in gaining concessional finance, which will enable them to compete against Chinese companies. But what the Australian facility plans to offer is small beer when compared with what the ADB is funding, and what the China Exim Bank is funding.

The most recent indication from the managers of the Infrastructure Financing Facility was that it hoped to gain approval for around A$300 million in loans and grants by 30 June. That is nowhere near enough.

The time has come for the Australian government to ask the ADB serious questions, and develop a constituency that will help wrest a reasonable share of infrastructure work in our closest neighbour from the clutches of well-resourced, aggressive and well-connected PRC companies that currently have free rein right across the important infrastructure sector in PNG.

If it does not happen soon-very soon-it will simply be too late.