Labor wins convention-breaking PNG tick of approval

The opposition leader says he’ll be able to work with the Papua New Guinea government despite its public preference for Labor.

Peter Dutton was asked about the rare foreign endorsement made during the Australian election campaign from PNG Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko, who openly admitted he’d prefer to work with Anthony Albanese’s government after the May 3 poll.

“Our relationship with Australia has never been stronger,” he told the ABC.

“Why would you want to change something that is working well?

“I can clearly state that we would, I’m sure, love to see the current Australian government continue and to continue our good work.”

The comments are unusual for an overseas politician.

While foreign governments might have their preferences for which side of Australian politics they hope to work with, they are usually guarded about revealing it in public.

Asked by AAP for his response to the comments while campaigning in Melbourne on Wednesday, Mr Dutton downplayed the significance.

“I’ve known Justin for about 20 years and he’s doing a great job as foreign affairs minister in PNG,” he said.

“He’s very colourful up in PNG and he’s a friend of our country, so we can work very effectively with the government.”

The Labor campaign has been contacted for comment.

Discussion of Australia’s relationship with its closest neighbours has been largely absent from the campaign trail this year.

The biggest clash of opinions between the major parties on Pacific matters is over Australia’s bid to host the COP31 climate change conference.

Mr Albanese has championed the bid, whereas Mr Dutton plans to scrap it, citing costs.

Pacific relationships were at the core of the last federal election campaign, when the revelation of plans for a security agreement between China and Solomon Islands landed weeks before the 2022 poll.

In three years of government, Mr Albanese’s government has re-oriented foreign policy towards the developing states in the region, signing a number of bilateral security pacts including with Tuvalu and Nauru.

In December, off the back of a major $600 million commitment to back an NRL team in Port Moresby, the Australian and PNG governments announced they would enter negotiations on a formal defence treaty.

Australia is also moving to allow PNG citizens to serve in its defence forces, with the possibility of Australians heading the other way.

Mr Dutton is known in the Pacific for his notorious comments made in PNG a decade ago alongside Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison.

Without realising they were being recorded, the three men remarked about the lateness of proceedings before Mr Dutton said “time doesn’t mean anything when you’re about to have water lapping at your door”.

Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr recalled the comments while on a recent trip to Sydney.

“For those of us in the Pacific who have lived through storm surges, rising ocean levels, and increasingly high tides, the phrase ‘water lapping at our door’ is not a metaphor or a punchline. It’s our fear and reality,” he said.

Mr Dutton, then immigration minister, apologised for the comments.