The Queensland Rugby League receives some well-deserved recognition

The Queensland Rugby League is one of the best run sporting bodies in the country.

It has received some well-deserved recognition from the Australian Government by securing an ongoing role in the administration of around $2.2 million in funding for rugby league in our closest neighbour, Papua New Guinea.

It was a decade ago that the QRL’s Arthur Eustace asked to see me to discuss the state of rugby league in PNG. The QRL was considering expanding the Queensland Cup competition, a state wide competition for first grade players.

Within two years the PNG Hunters joined the competition and just a few years later it won the premiership.

When the Covid border closures occurred in 2020, the QRL could have excused for returning to a state-based competitio- by including for example the great rugby league city of Toowoomba.

To its credit, it didn’t do so, and assisted the PNG Hunters relocate to an excellent facility on the Gold Coast Broadwater in the electorate of the state opposition leader, David Crisafulli.

He tells me that the Hunters have been a credit to themselves, their families and the game.

A plan to start playing home games again this year had to be abandoned because of national elections related lawlessness.

But the team plans to return in 2023, though it may be able to play a full season of home and away matches including several in regional centres.

Unlike the National Rugby League, a bloated 400 plus employee bureaucracy, the QRL has been on the ground and pro-active in promoting the game, and sport generally, in Papua New Guinea.

At the same time the QRL has worked hard to maintain the game in a challenging environment in regional and country Queensland.

The QRL recently released an ambitious plan to develop a Centre for Excellence for Rugby League on the under-utilised site of the 1982 Commonwealth Games in suburban Nathan.

The QRL is currently headquartered opposite Suncorp Stadium in inner city Milton. It has flooded twice in recent years.

It makes sense for the QRL to include a Centre for Excellence in its proposal.

In my view the federal government should seriously consider helping to fund the project if it includes young players from PNG, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and the Cook Islands.

And it might even include rugby union.

It most certainly needs to include places for women and youth.

The QRL is deserving of support for a project that has an unlimited capacity to strengthen our regional links.

It is further evidence that sport can be the great unifier between Australia and our neighbours. It is something China can’t offer!

I don’t believe $2.2 million is anywhere enough. But it is a start and can be built on.

The Prime Minister is a genuine rugby league tragic.

Rugby league needs to harness his support.

It is helpful that the federal Sport Minister, Anita Wells, and the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, are also league fans.

There is probably a widely held view that most Papua New Guineans support the Maroons. Sadly they don’t! When Premier Peter Beattie visited PNG in 2002 he presented the Prime Minister, Sir Michael Somare, with a Maroons jumper. Without hesitation The Chief said “I support the Blues”.

It had been forgotten his sons attended Woodlawn College in Northern NSW.

Sport in PNG and the Pacific generally has come a long way in the last 20 years.

Its further development will genuinely enhance the Australian national interest.

I can envisage cricket, union, soccer, AFL and netball benefiting from a reasonable level of funding support from the Australian Government. A focus on regional and village communities will deliver real outcomes for Australia and our neighbours.

Forget the lopsided scores when the PMs 13 teams played on Sunday night. The PNG men’s team in particular will do far better at the forthcoming World Cup in England.

On Sunday night it was up against an enthusiastic Australian team in what was effectively a World Cup selection trial.

It did not include a number of PNG players currently playing in the UK..

Continued support for the game - and sport generally - across the Pacific needs to be encouraged.

I know the federal treasurer faces some tough choices when it comes to the budget to be presented later in October. But funding sport in our region merits is a worthy cause.