PETER VAN ONSELEN: Aussies are struggling with the cost of living… So how can Albo

I love my rugby league, as do many Australians. But you do have to wonder about the decision Anthony Albanese is set to formalise in the coming weeks: spending $600m to support setting up a new NRL team representing Papua New Guinea. 

Timing is almost everything in politics, and right now our economy is on the brink, growth rates are anaemic and interest rates may be about to rise. 

The cost of living crisis engulfing Australians is made worse by stubbornly  high housing prices, a shortage of housing stocks and a per capita recession. 

Yet in the middle of all of that federal cabinet is set to sign off on Albo’s decision to send hundreds of millions of dollars off shore to help a near neighbour establish a new rugby league team. 

When welfare advocates asked Treasurer Jim Chalmers why his recent budget didn’t include an increase to JobSeeker, he said that government’s need to make decisions about where a finite amount of taxpayers dollars can be spent. 

The Labor Party had other more urgent priorities, he intimated. 

How does so much money going abroad to support a commercial sporting enterprise’s expansion qualify as a good use of taxpayers dollars right now? 

It would be bad enough if that money was allocated to domestic sporting activities akin to the set up in PNG. 

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Federal cabinet are expecting to sign off on $600m to support an NRL team representing Papua New Guinea Above, he meets players during a rugby league match involving PNG in 2022

While the government considers what is it doing an important example of soft diplomacy – keeping PNG close and away from the grasping reach of China – that doesn’t change the fact that the quantum being spent could have helped out in other more needy areas at home. 

To address the aged care crisis for example. Or to help the government achieve its target for new home builds it is currently falling short of. 

When Australia is doing well and has the opportunity to spread its largesse to more needy nations, that’s one thing. 

But when we are on the verge of a technical recession with unemployment projected in the May budget to rise in the coming years, pledging $600m to a foreign power for the purpose of setting up a sporting team just feels wrong. 

And what about the values Labor claims to hold dear? Is the money evenly split according to gender, or is it only going into the men’s game? 

Perhaps more importantly, why won’t the government find money like this to support women’s sports at home, such as netball – the most popular sport played right across the country. 

Peter Van Onselen suspects Team Albo made the decision about an NRL team for PNG in a misguided search for votes 

Helping netball become a viable commercial business to rival other highly paid television sports would be just one way Labor could walk the walk on gender issues rather than just talk to talk.  

I suspect Team Albo made the decision about an NRL team for PNG in a misguided search for votes. Hoping, in a roundabout way, that the money pledged would endear the government to rugby league loving fans keen to see the reach of the game expand. 

Labor hopes to win seats off of the Coalition in Queensland, and it needs to retain its share of NSW seats to have any chance of holding onto majority government after the next election. 

It is no coincidence that these are the two league loving states most likely to applaud the PNG investment. 

I just wonder if they really will, given the economic challenges right now. The monies going out the door don’t even provide tangible assets for key seats, such as a brand spanking new stadium in the heart of a must win marginal seat. 

Instead, it will go into a mixture of infrastructure abroad, security arrangements and grassroots support for the game in PNG. That is all a long way from the grassroots seat by seat campaigns that will decide the next election. 

While the Coalition is unlikely to oppose or even point out the opportunity costs attached to this allocation on money to go overseas, if voters take the time to stop and think about the amount being gifted, they may well wonder why Albo can find so much money to help out another country.

But he can’t seem to find the funds necessary to lift the living standards of Australian citizens. Shouldn’t charity really begin at home?