{"id":787504,"date":"2026-07-08T18:24:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T18:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/787504\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T18:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T18:24:10","slug":"albanese-courts-pacific-with-rugby-league-push","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/787504\/","title":{"rendered":"Albanese courts Pacific with rugby league push"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has had one overarching regional goal since taking office \u2014 stop China gaining a military foothold in the Pacific. He has been ready to harness any tool available to further it, including sports. <\/p>\n<p>Canberra is using rugby league, a fierce and combative form of football popular in Australia and the Pacific islands, for diplomatic ends. <\/p>\n<p>Albanese last year announced that Australia would finance a team from Papua New Guinea (PNG) to participate in the domestic professional league. Some of the A$600 million (US$414.97 million) set aside for the new team is also earmarked to support youth development. <\/p>\n<p>                        <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/P06-260709-320.jpg\" width=\"100%\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Photo: AFP<\/p>\n<p>League was on show to cement regional ties last night, when Albanese hosted Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape and the leaders of Samoa and Tonga to watch State of Origin.<\/p>\n<p>It is the most important rugby league series, in which powerhouse states Queensland and New South Wales face off in a take-no-prisoners contest. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am very much looking forward to hosting Pacific Leaders in Brisbane and attending the State of Origin with them,\u201d Albanese said in a statement yesterday before the game. \u201cThrough one of Australia\u2019s favorite sporting codes, we are bringing our Pacific family closer together.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The New South Wales Blues beat the Queensland Maroons 30-12.<\/p>\n<p>Australian Minister for Defense Industry and Pacific Island Affairs Pat Conroy said that said PNG\u2019s new team \u2014 the Chiefs \u2014 is something Marape wanted to unite his diverse peoples, \u201cakin to when Nelson Mandela brought South Africans together\u201d through rugby union. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have been clear that we are now in a permanent state of contest in the Pacific,\u201d Conroy added. \u201cThat\u2019s why we are using all tools of statecraft and all levers of diplomacy, including sports diplomacy, to ensure we have a prosperous and secure region.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>That contest with Beijing was brought into sharp relief on Monday, when China test-fired a ballistic missile from a submarine into the Pacific. The test happened to coincide with Albanese visiting Fiji, and came shortly after the Australian and Fijian leaders signed a new defense alliance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has had one overarching regional goal since taking office \u2014 stop China gaining&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":787505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44,28604,28603],"class_list":["post-787504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news","tag-the-taipei-times","tag-28603"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=787504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/787505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=787504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=787504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}