Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Rugby league fans in Queensland and New South Wales are having a hard time understanding why the Albanese government has given $600 million of Australian taxpayers' money to Papua New Guinea for a new team in the NRL. I remind the Senate that this incredible generosity at our expense is on top of the almost $500 million a year given to PNG in foreign aid. Australia has also loaned PNG another $2.56 billion in budget support since 2020. Our fans wonder why a PNG based team is even needed in the NRL. More importantly, Australians struggling to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads, thanks to Labor's cost-of-living crisis, are right to be angry about this Labor government giving a foreign football team $600 million of their money. How many new nurses and doctors could this money fund in regional Queensland? How much in the way of mental health or drug rehab services could that money support? This is yet another example of the Albanese Labor government putting foreign interests before Australian interests.

Next year Papua New Guinea will celebrate the 50th anniversary of its independence from Australia. It's a perfect opportunity for Australia to re-examine its relationship with our nearest neighbour and let it stand on its own feet without Australian aid, but how confident could we be in PNG's governance abilities to tackle its endemic corruption or its ability to resist approaches from Communist China? We must prioritise putting Australians and their urgent needs first before extremely low-order priorities, like funding a foreign football team.