PNG's anti-corruption agency on brink of implosion amid commissioner war
On the program today
A war between commissioners leaves Papua New Guinea's anti-corruption agency on the brink of implosion.
Rising sea temperatures make 2024 the hottest year on record in the Pacific.
Shocking research reveals the lengths seasonal workers are going to, to hide pregnancies whilst overseas.
Seasonal workers take comfort in each others cultures whilst working overseas.
Fiji Rugby signs a memorandum of understanding with China Rugby.
And three nations square off in the Oceania Women's Rugby Championship.
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The Australian
an hour ago
- The Australian
NRL's Pacific plan to pummel AFL in broadcast bonanza
ARL Commission boss Peter V'landys says rugby league's next TV rights deal could span up to 10 years, revealing a Pacific goldmine that will deliver broadcast billions to the NRL. V'landys plans to kick off broadcast negotiations in July after the State of Origin decider and the ARLC chairman says the inclusion of Papua New Guinea will help the code clinch the richest TV rights deal in rugby league history. V'landys will arrive in PNG this Tuesday to ramp-up the NRL's reconnaissance for the 19th team in 2028 and the next step is thrashing out a Pacific-infused broadcast deal that can blow their AFL rivals out of the water. A third network has contacted the ARL Commission to formally express interest. Up to five or six bidders are tipped to enter negotiations as current rights holders Fox and Channel 9 face billion-dollar competition for the most watched code in Australian sport. The NRL's last five-year TV rights deal was worth around $2 billion, including media rights in New Zealand, but V'landys has revealed the sport's next broadcast arrangement may be brokered for a longer term. The NRL's current TV rights deal ends in 2027. The next cycle was tipped to run from 2028-32, but V'landys says he wants to formalise rugby league's new broadcast deal by season's end in a package that could deliver a decade of certainty. That scenario would see the NRL smash their current broadcast haul with a potential fiscal TV rights bonanza of between $3 to $4 billion. 'It could be longer than five years, absolutely,' V'landys said. Asked if the next TV rights deal could be seven to 10 years in duration, he said: 'Yes, it could be. 'We're having some off-the-record talks at the moment, but we plan to start very soon and it will certainly heat up in the next couple of months. 'I definitely want it finalised this year. 'Hopefully that's the case and it's certainly our ambition to do it. 'We want certainty and we know our clubs want certainty. 'Players also want certainty, because if you do a three-or-four year deal or even longer, you know what your revenues are. 'We haven't got to that level of detail yet, but this will be a record deal. 'We have a much more valuable product now, much more valuable.' There are several variables that give V'landys confidence of broking the most lucrative broadcast deal in the code's 117-year history. One factor is the emergence of new media streaming giants, with global tentacles, such as Netflix, Amazon and Paramount. DAZN completed a $3.4 billion purchase of Foxtel in April and V'landys confirmed the world's leading sports entertainment platform will be a major player in upcoming TV rights negotiations. 'Of course they'll be keen,' he said. 'We're the number one sport in Australia. Why wouldn't they be keen? 'I can confirm we've had genuine interest. We are confident there are several parties in the marketplace and I'm confident there will be more to come when we begin talks. 'We will get a lot more dollars now than we have ever gotten because of the hard work done by the players, the clubs and the NRL.' Another significant factor is the expansion drive that will trigger the admission of the Perth Bears to the NRL in 2027 before Papua New Guinea's entry in 2028. V'landys says PNG will not only represent a fresh spectator market, but open a broadcasting gateway that could see the Pacific eventually usurp Australia as the NRL's most lucrative TV rights powerhouse. The NRL is exploring a cut-price Pacific subscription service to monetise the NRL's 19th team and the 10 million-plus Papua New Guinea fans who will back the franchise with unmatched tribalism. 'Papua New Guinea could end up, in 10 or 15 years, to be worth more in broadcast revenue than Australia,' he said. 'With PNG coming in, that is a massive arm that we have never tapped into, not to mention Perth. 'We're the most-watched sport in Australia, so we now should attract substantial offers. 'Our data shows 1.8 million people streamed the Papua New Guinea game against Australia's Prime Ministers XIII, which was an extraordinary number. 'By having a cheap subscription to watch (PNG and NRL games), we could attract millions of new subscribers in the Pacific. 'We're very mindful of pricepoint. We don't want to make it too expensive for rugby league fans to watch and support the game. 'We definitely want to get the most revenue, but at the same time, we don't want to make it unaffordable for our wonderful fans. 'The game has never been in a better place. 'This has been a planned strategy - and it will pay off big time.' Peter Badel Chief Rugby League Writer Peter Badel is a six-time award winning journalist who began as a sports reporter in 1998. A best-selling author, 'Bomber' has covered five Australian cricket tours and has specialised in rugby league for more than two decades. NRL Selwyn Cobbo flew to Sydney for preliminary talks earlier this month in the strongest sign yet that the powerhouse back is on the verge of quitting the Broncos. See which clubs are interested. NRL The might of New Zealand Rugby wants what the NRL has, with Warriors boss Cameron George approached to jump codes to become their next CEO, reveals David Riccio.
ABC News
11 hours ago
- ABC News
New Zealand suspends aid to Cook Islands over China deal
On the program this week: New Zealand's government says it has suspended aid to the Cook Islands after the Pacific nation signed up to an agreement with China. The leaders of Tonga and Vanuatu say they're seeking clarity from the US government over possible new travel bans. Investigations are continuing into the death of a prominent Pacific Islander fashion designer, who was shot at an anti-Trump rally in Salt Lake City, Utah. Landowners in Papua New Guinea's New Ireland Province want the prime minister to put his opposition to deep-sea mining into practice. There's a call for labour hire companies to be licensed in New South Wales to prevent the exploitation of migrant workers. Solomon Islands and Vanuatu are teaming up on an ambitious plan to create a massive marine reserve covering 6 million square kilometres of ocean.
SBS Australia
21 hours ago
- SBS Australia
Report traces impact of US foreign aid cuts on Australian agency programs
At the start of the year, Ciaran O'Toole says Conciliation Resources was just setting out on a five year project. "We work primarily in communities, building or enhancing the capacities in communities to be able to prevent violent conflict. We had just started a program in the in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, and then it was quite quickly stopped as part of U-S AID pulling out." The international peace building group hoped to prevent violence in an area where conflict is increasing. Last year, 49 people were killed in the Highlands in what was considered a major escalation in tribal fighting in the region. "It is what not happens, right? It is the headlines that don't exist. It is around, sort of, working on these complex, long term problems at a community level. So it's not just reacting to when violence occurs." But the plan to station mediators to help communities find non-violent ways to address grievances in PNG's Hela province came to an abrupt halt in January, as the United States Administration paused all USAID funding for 90 days. Since then, only 14 per cent of programs have had their funding reinstated by the U-S government. Conciliation Resources was forced to let go of some staff, and reduce hours for others. "The communities that are affected by violence, and in particular, the women that suffer abuse, the people that are affected directly by violence who struggle to see a light at the end of the tunnel sometimes. Yeah. I would feel more for them." The program is one of more than 120 run by Australian agencies impacted by the cuts, according to a report by the Australian Council for International Development. Director of Policy and Advocacy Jessica McKenzie says the cost is in the hundreds of millions. "400 million ((AUD)) worth of programming has been cut. 20 country offices have closed, and we've seen a number of staff laid off. Just one agency had to let go of 200 local staff, not even their own staff, and they would have been single income families. And so you can imagine the flow on effects of this." The council expects the actual effect of the cuts to be greater, with less than half of its members responding to the survey. Australian-run programs in Indo-Pacific region were hardest hit, with $113 million AUD worth of funding lost in the Pacific closely followed by $111 million AUD in Southeast Asia. But the impact for Australian agencies extends throughout Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Ms McKenzie says a program assisting 765,000 people in Yemen was cut. "It was providing life saving medicine. It was providing life saving food, and it was providing malnutrition help for 26,000 children under the age of five." In Nepal, a program supporting over 300 girls to go to school has been axed. "That means that they're more exposed to modern slavery, to human trafficking, to force child marriage. The flow on effects of these projects and their ability to break the cycle of poverty are really quite compounding." The council found that child-related programs encompassing, education, health, nutrition, and anti-child trafficking took the greatest financial hit, closely followed by projects focused on climate change. The U-S Administration undertook a review during the initial pause to ensure only programs that aligned with the foreign policy of the President were funded by the government. Whilst aid organisations say they have been given little clarity as to why programs were cut, there's a belief that those focused on climate change and gender did not meet the expectations of the administration. Mr O'Toole says there was some themes within the cuts. "I don't think there was much thinking gone into it, to be quite honest. I think it was anything that included elements of gender, which our program obviously did. Possibly even the words peace building was eliminated, we believe, pretty quickly. There's a lot of talk around peace from the administration. A desire to sign peace agreements to Nobel Prizes, but at the end of the day, peace starts in communities. It starts with people. It starts on the ground." Australia's International Development Minister Anne Aly says the government is still working to understand the full extent of the U-S cuts. "We are concerned that the cuts will have an impact, particularly on the poorer nations within our region, which is why we continue to say and to demonstrate that we are a trusted partner in the region. It's why we have not cut our a budget. In fact, we've increased our aid budget." ACFID is calling for the budget to be increased from 0.65% to 1% of total federal spending to help fill the gap left by the United States. "In the past, between 2005 and 2015, it was at 1% of Australian federal expenditure. So this isn't a really big change." Labor reallocated $120 million of foreign aid from global health and education programs to the Indo-Pacific region in its pre-election budget in response to the USAID pause. Overall, Labor committed to spend an additional $135 million on aid in the next financial year, an increase in line with inflation. That's below Labor's Party Platform to increase the aid each budget as a percent of gross national income, with a final target of 0.5 per cent of GNI. It's remained stagnant at 0.19 per cent since 2022. Dr Aly says the overall spend will continue to be gradually increased. "That's what's in our platform. What I'm saying is what we have done is increase our overseas development assistance budget, and that we have made a commitment to increase it by indexation." Since coming into power, Labor has increased its diplomatic and humanitarian efforts in the Pacific with concerns about China's influence in the region driving increased investment and aid programs. Ms McKenzie says the government should priorities the programs with the greatest impact. "We can rebalance it towards more of those health, education, nutrition programs, rather than some of the more geostrategic imperatives." Dr Aly says Australia will continue to prioritise the Indo-Pacific. "We're focused on ensuring that the countries in our region have economic resilience. We're focused on the health needs of the countries in our region. We're focused on ensuring that our aid goes to where it's most needed and where it can have most impact. I don't think it should be a point of contention that Australia should be focused on the region in which we operate."
