Vlandys PNG top 8 on demand 2028 special

[SeaEagleRock8]

PNG is just a political wank

Political wank or not, in a few years they could be a dominant side. There must be plenty of kids there and having their own NRL side - with players earning decent money - so will surely mean a thriving junior nursery before too long.
(unless all the funding is lost due to corruption - I couldn't access the SMH article @Stuey Davis’s Socks linked)

 

[manlyfan76]

Uncle, aunty and kids loved in PNG twenty years ago when he worked for a major car brand.
Definitely things you could and couldn't do but they enjoyed it and didnt have any issues.

 

[mave]

Any impact on the Origin product is negligible to me anyway; scrap it for all I care!

Scrap the $$$$ it generates for the game as well?

I'm not fan of SOO, but we need it.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

Political wank or not, in a few years they could be a dominant side. There must be plenty of kids there and having their own NRL side - with players earning decent money - so will surely mean a thriving junior nursery before too long.
(unless all the funding is lost due to corruption - I couldn't access the SMH article @Stuey Davis’s Socks linked)

Corruption will be the killer it’s rife up there

 

[The Insomniac]

This PNG farce will be the end of PVL and over time, will cause a lot of damage to the NRL . A hugely dangerous venture. I know from personal experience, what it's like up there. It's a basket case of a country. For the good of the game, I hope I'm wrong.

 

[manly al]

Think that there are some conditions or caveats with the 600 mil allocation and not sure of the breakdown on how the funds are going to be distributed but again seemed to be some get out clauses on an Australian federal government 's behalf .
Just referencing an Australian government context in that the current opposition has not so far at least, indicated any objection to the present arrangement .
Looks like the current P N G Hunters , Q L D cup side are hardly world beaters so the or any N R L future side is going to require quite a few quality imports to get them up to speed .
If the likes of players like Olam or Coates can be sourced locally , could only be a good things but still think also that some closer links or pathways with say Fiji could only be a good thing for the franchise
Doubt whether any allegations of corruption within the governing parties there is going to influence the likelihood of a successful franchise , No doubt has been prevalent for a long time now and most likely also will continue to whatever degree

 

[Stuey Davis’s Socks]

Man who won $600m from Albanese government for PNG rugby league embroiled in corruption scandal​

The Australian government’s support was supposed to head off Chinese influence, but a suspect deal involving Kumul Petroleum would have invited just that.
ByNick McKenzie and Chris Barrett
JULY 18, 2025​

CREDIT: NATHAN PERRI

Save
Share
Normal text sizeLarger text sizeVery large text size​

Listen to this article
13 min
The chairman of the successful bid for Papua New Guinea’s new rugby league franchise faces corruption concerns involving a Chinese company – after the Albanese government poured $600 million of taxpayers money into the scheme to ward off Beijing’s influence in the Pacific.
The claims involve a company owned by powerful PNG businessman Wapu Sonk, who led the Pacific Island nation’s bid to join the National Rugby League and in June was appointed a director of the country’s new franchise.
But evidence unearthed by this masthead raises serious questions about whether Sonk sought to benefit personally from his power as the chief of PNG’s national oil company.
The evidence, which relates to his business dealings not the NRL bid, includes confidential documents and corporate records and links Sonk’s company to suspect dealings with a massive Chinese government firm and a plot to funnel contracts to a company Sonk owns in Australia.

Wapu Sonk was a driving force behind the NRL’s PNG bid.CREDIT:FACEBOOK
Sonk, who has refused to answer questions about the issue, is also facing scrutiny over his use of a multimillion-dollar Brisbane property owned by an Australian businessman whose firm has been awarded lucrative contracts by the top oil company which Sonk heads.
Sonk has been heralded as a central player in the NRL expansion deal announced in December by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese alongside his PNG counterpart, James Marape, that will see the team join the competition in 2028.
Labor has committed $600 million in taxpayer funding to finance the deal, with the funds to be spent mostly in PNG with the guidance of Sonk and his fellow directors and oversight from the Australian Rugby League Commission.
The Albanese government has backed the deal as a means of countering China’s strategic, security and economic influence in PNG – a fact which raises further questions about Sonk’s company’s dealings with a Beijing-backed firm.

PNG Prime Minister James Marape and Australian PM Anthony Albanese announcing the PNG NRL team.CREDIT:KATE GERAGHTY
Sonk’s power and influence – and the reason he became a key player in the NRL deal – flow from his position as the head of PNG’s biggest company, the state-owned national oil company, Kumul Petroleum Holdings Limited.
If Sonk sought to use Kumul Petroleum to cut deals with a Chinese government entity in order to personally profit, it would involve precisely the type of dealmaking the Albanese government was seeking to counter when it inked the deal it negotiated with Sonk to expand the NRL into Port Moresby.
The multibillion-dollar company is responsible for boosting PNG’s economic and social welfare via its mandated stake in key energy projects.
Sonk has helmed Kumul Petroleum as managing director for 10 years, giving him huge political and business sway as well as influence over overseas companies chasing contracts in PNG.
Kumul Petroleum’s long-standing funding of rugby league in PNG has made Sonk into a kingmaker in the local sport landscape.
The corruption concerns involve Kumul Petroleum’s $30 million project to build new oil tank facilities at a key PNG international port, the Motukea Main Wharf.

The fuel tank project at Motukea.
In 2024, the Sonk-led Kumul Petroleum awarded the contract to a Chinese Communist Party-controlled firm involved in mega projects around the world, the China Petroleum and Pipeline Engineering Corporation.
In December, Sonk told the PNG press that Kumul Petroleum was spending “significant” funds on the project to “put in place critical infrastructure ... which is so important for our economy and development as a country”.
But a leaked Kumul Petroleum letter suggests Sonk may have also been seeking to benefit himself.
The letter, obtained by this masthead, details a demand from Kumul Petroleum – on its official letterhead – to the China Petroleum and Pipeline Engineering Corporation.
The March 12 letter tells the Chinese-government firm that Kumul expected it to hire two “designated” Australian companies in order to carry out the port project and that this is in keeping with a “prior agreement” extracted by Kumul Petroleum during its negotiations with the Beijing company.
“We would like to formally confirm that, as previously discussed and agreed upon, the renovation and upgrade work at Motukea Main Wharf of PNG Motukea Fuel Facility Project shall be carried out by the designated companies,” the Kumul Petroleum letter states.
The request from Kumul Petroleum to the Chinese government contractor contains a veiled commercial threat that if it did not hire the “designated” Australian companies, it might jeopardise its relationship with PNG’s national oil company.
“We kindly request your cooperation in ensuring that the execution of these works aligns with our prior agreements. Any deviation from the agreed-upon plan could potentially impact the project’s overall success and our collaborative efforts,” the letter states.
Missing from the letter is a key detail: one of the two “designated” companies put forward in Kumul Petroleum’s letter of demand, PNG Developments Pty Ltd, is privately owned in Australia by Wapu Sonk.
“Specifically, the Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) work shall be executed by PNG Developments PTY LTD,” the Kumul Petroleum letter states without disclosing that the Australian firm’s sole shareholder is Sonk.
The second designated firm is FSB Consulting, which this masthead has confirmed is owned by one of Sonk’s senior employees at Kumul Petroleum, Australian-born Jason Pollock.
“The Project Management Consultancy (PMC) work shall be handled by FSB Consulting Pty Ltd,” states the March 2025 letter, which is signed by Pollock is his capacity as “Projects Director: Kumul Petroleum Holdings Limited”.
As is the case with Sonk’s private firm, there is no mention in the Kumul Petroleum letter that Pollock owns FSB.
Called this week, Pollock denied knowing his boss, Sonk, was the owner of PNG Developments Pty Ltd.
“I would find it hard to believe that Sonk owns that company,” Pollock said. “That would surprise me … I’m quite taken back (sic) by that suggestion.”
When later sent a shareholding document by this masthead that proved Sonk’s ownership of the firm, Pollock responded with an emoji of an angry red face swearing.
When Pollock was pressed as to why he wrote to the Chinese in March instructing them to use PNG Developments Pty Ltd if he did not know who owned it, he said: “I can’t remember.”

Advertisement​

He also said he could “not remember” who directed him to nominate PNG Developments Pty Ltd as one of the two firms the Chinese government company was expected to use, but suggested it may have been a senior engineer working for the Chinese Communist Party-controlled corporation.
Pressed about the seeming promotion of his privately owned firm, Pollock said it “looks stinky” and was a “conflict of interest”.
Pollock claimed he had “retracted” the Kumul Petroleum letter of demand after: “I saw the error of my ways.”
Pollock also claimed he had personally discussed the letter with Sonk and that Sonk had warned him about conflicts of interest, albeit while never revealing his ownership of PNG Developments Pty Ltd.
Pollock insisted he was not a friend of Sonk, who Pollock called “the big fella”.
But he said he had travelled to a Chinese energy conference in Beijing with Sonk in May as part of a delegation including senior PNG politicians. Pollock had also travelled to Shanghai with Sonk on a separate trip, he said.
Pollock said during an interview that he was “happy” for any allegations of wrongdoing linked to the port deal “to be investigated”.
Sonk was sent detailed questions on Tuesday, including whether he had any knowledge of, or involvement in, sending the letter, but declined to answer them.
“These are serious questions and I prefer a lawyer to speak to you on my behalf,” Sonk said in a message on Tuesday.
He did not respond further, although his lawyers on Wednesday wrote to this masthead saying: “Our client denies any and all allegations of improper or unlawful conduct that you assert.”
There is no suggestion by this masthead that Sonk directed Pollock to send the letter to the Chinese firm, only that the circumstances of the letter warrant further scrutiny because of Sonk’s ownership of PNG Developments.
There is no evidence that the two firms privately owned by Sonk or Pollock ever actually received any funds or contracts from the Chinese company.
An Australian government spokesman said it had zero tolerance for corruption and any allegations of corrupt behaviour should be referred to appropriate authorities.
The spokesman, in a statement, said the agreements between the government, the ARL Commission and PNG’s NRL franchise had “strong anti-fraud and corruption protections”.

ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys said he had not previously heard any adverse allegations about Wapu Sonk.CREDIT:KATE GERAGHTY
ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys said he had not previously heard any adverse allegations about Sonk and that the league would be guided by “any court case which tests these allegations”.

---

Sonk also declined to answer questions about his use of a multimillion-dollar Brisbane home owned by an Australian businessman whose company has won contracts from Kumul Petroleum.
Corporate records reveal that Hamid Ronagh is the part owner – via a company – of the Indooroopilly property used by Sonk and one of his close associates, a PNG woman, to register companies and also to live in.

The house in Brisbane that the owner says is tenanted to Wapu Sonk.CREDIT:DAN PELED
Ronagh’s Australian firm, Neobuild, has won contracts in PNG awarded by Kumul Petroleum.
Pollock told this masthead that Neobuild had won a large contract on the Motukea wharf project.
Ronagh confirmed to this masthead that Sonk was renting his Brisbane property.
But Ronagh did not respond to a request to provide evidence that Sonk had paid to use the property and did not respond to questions about whether the arrangement was appropriate given Neobuild’s commercial dealings with Kumul Petroleum.
Sonk also did not respond to questions about why he was using the Brisbane property and the extent, if any, of his private dealings with Ronagh.
This masthead is not suggesting that Ronagh has provided inducements to Sonk, or that Sonk has sought them.
Rather, the apparent private commercial relationship between the pair raises questions about conflicts of interest that remain unanswered given the pair’s failure to answer questions.

A woman leaving the property this week.CREDIT:DAN PELED

---

While Sonk’s involvement in suspect dealings in his capacity as national oil company chief do not extend to his role leading PNG’s rugby league bid, they do raise questions about his ongoing role as director of PNG’s new NRL franchise.
Sonk was a VIP guest of the NRL in Australia when the new team was announced and gave interviews to Australian reporters claiming the new franchise would sign up one million members, or more than the rest of the competition teams combined.
One league reporter wrote that the PNG NRL deal had transformed Sonk into “one of the game’s most powerful figures”.
Sonk is one of seven directors variously nominated by the ARL commission and PNG government to the board that will oversee the addition of a new team to the NRL competition in 2028.
V’landys said Sonk was among the selections of the PNG government, while the commission’s nominations included chairman and Canterbury Bulldogs powerbroker Ray Dib.
He said the commission conducted background checks on nominated directors.
The NRL agreed to the historic expansion into PNG at the behest of Albanese, who was eager to deliver it as a boost to Marape to shore up security ties with Australia’s closest neighbour and ward off China’s efforts to further its influence in the Pacific.
Of the $600 million committed by the Albanese government over 10 years, $290 million will go towards the establishment and operation of the PNG team, with $250 million channelled into the development of rugby league in the Pacific and $60 million to be divided between existing NRL clubs as a licence fee.
As an added layer of oversight, the commission will be responsible overseeing the distribution of the $600 million of taxpayer funds.
However, there have been concerns that the PNG deal would inevitably be exposed to governance risks given that corruption is endemic in the Pacific.
“It’s in this type of corrupted environment that you’re going to be exposed to these kind of situations,” one observer said.
A second source with deep connections into the federal government and the NRL said the NRL-PNG deal was always a bad idea given the potential for it to fuel corruption.
A third source, a senior official in PNG, said the Australian government funds were “better spent on health and education”.
Sonk’s lawyers said their client’s role as a director of the new PNG-NRL franchise was appropriate.
“Our client is one member of a board of directors of the proposed franchisee. That board comprises a group of highly experienced and well-regarded individuals (including retired professional NRL players) that collectively bring significant expertise to their oversight responsibilities, and decisions are made through proper and robust governance processes,” they said.
The Australian government’s bankrolling of rugby league in the Pacific has alarmed rugby union chiefs in Fiji, Tonga and Samoa, who have formed new links with China amid concerns that their national game could be cannibalised by a foreign taxpayer-backed rival code.
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
Save
Share
License this article

• Investigations
• NRL 2025
• For subscribers
• Foreign relations
• Papua New Guinea
• PNG
• MORE…​

​

Nick McKenzie is an Age investigative journalist who has three times been named the Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year. A winner of 20 Walkley Awards, including the Gold Walkley, he investigates politics, business, foreign affairs and criminal justice.Connect via email.

​

Chris Barrett is an investigative reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. He is a former South-East Asia correspondent, and chief sports reporter.Connect via Twitter or email.

 

[Stuey Davis’s Socks]

Political wank or not, in a few years they could be a dominant side. There must be plenty of kids there and having their own NRL side - with players earning decent money - so will surely mean a thriving junior nursery before too long.
(unless all the funding is lost due to corruption - I couldn't access the SMH article @Stuey Davis’s Socks linked)

Fixed

 

[The Insomniac]

Fixed

Study. Almost impossible to read black type on maroon background. Very interested in the article but impossibly to read.

 

[G-land Express]

As a Manly supporter not really happy my tax $$ going to another team in another country. This thing has USAID style kickbacks and consultant fee skimming written all over it.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

As a Manly supporter not really happy my tax $$ going to another team in another country. This thing has USAID style kickbacks and consultant fee skimming written all over it.

If the whole thing was run say out of Cairns, with a largely Australian board ( & some from PNG) , a couple of PNG home games ( the rest in Cairns) it could work.

If its run purely out of PNG, I give it “ until the government money runs dry “ then it’ll be a complete and utter basket case.

 

[G-land Express]

If the whole thing was run say out of Cairns, with a largely Australian board ( & some from PNG) , a couple of PNG home games ( the rest in Cairns) it could work.

If its run purely out of PNG, I give it “ until the government money runs dry “ then it’ll be a complete and utter basket case.

Yep and its almost guaranteed theyll "run out". I'm all for it in principle but just not us having to pay for it. The nrl should pay for it out of profits. ( assume they have coin invested in a fund or something).

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

Yep and its almost guaranteed theyll "run out". I'm all for it in principle but just not us having to pay for it. The nrl should pay for it out of profits. ( assume they have coin invested in a fund or something).

It’s a disaster waiting to happen.

A great idea in theory , but realistically ****ing stupid.

 

[LeonardCohen]

Scrap the $$$$ it generates for the game as well?

I'm not fan of SOO, but we need it.

See I don’t really feel the dollars generated from SOO change the product for fans; it just fattens the already fat pockets of the game’s administration and maybe contributes to the cap going up? That’s great for the players but with the limit on exports to super league clubs, we are only competing with rugby and not that many of our players really want to play union anyway…to hell with SOO 😂

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

Did I mention corruption

Director of PNG's NRL franchise stood down amid corruption allegations

A director within Papua New Guinea's newly formed NRL franchise stands down amid corruption concerns relating to business dealings at a state-owned oil company.

www.abc.net.au

 

[The Insomniac]

It’s a disaster waiting to happen.

A great idea in theory , but realistically ****ing stupid.

Agreed Mark. How can they guarantee player, and their families safety? If you drive past the Australian embassy the have 5 mtr wall electrified fences and a mote FFS. It's like Fort Knox. Only a matter of time until Rascals injure someone . If I was a player ( tax free or not ) I wouldn't be taking my family anywhere near the place. Money isn't everything.

 

[mickqld]

Did I mention corruption

Director of PNG's NRL franchise stood down amid corruption allegations

A director within Papua New Guinea's newly formed NRL franchise stands down amid corruption concerns relating to business dealings at a state-owned oil company.

www.abc.net.au

Hahaha it's barely got off the ground and the corruption has already started. What an absolute farce the whole thing is. Albo's desperate cash splash to counter the Chinese Pacific expansion is straight out of clowntown.

 

[Brookie1973]

Hahaha it's barely got off the ground and the corruption has already started. What an absolute farce the whole thing is. Albo's desperate cash splash to counter the Chinese Pacific expansion is straight out of clowntown.

If Albo was seriously worried about Chinese expansion, perhaps he should have used some of those tax $ to expand our nuclear submarine fleet …. to 1.