Catherine Harris has been earmarked as the new independent director on the board of Papua New Guinea’s yet-launched NRL club.
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Harris Farm founder recruited to sport’s riskiest board
Catherine Harris has been earmarked as the new independent director on the board of Papua New Guinea’s yet-launched NRL club.
Mark Di StefanoColumnist
Sep 25, 2025 – 5.00am
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The founding of two new NRL clubs – Perth Bears and an unnamed franchise in Papua New Guinea – means a tremendous amount of work for rugby league chief
Peter V’landys. But it also lets him do what he does best: finding those willing to
fill board seats.
We hear the latest is Harris Farm Markets co-founder
Catherine Harris, who has been earmarked as the new independent board member at the PNG’s new club.
Harris Farm co-founder Catherine Harris and rugby league chief Peter V’landys.
Harris has an enviously broad CV. She’s currently chairwoman of her bougie green grocer and sits on the boards of the Taronga Conservation Society, GreenCollar (a controversial carbon offsets provider), the UNSW Business School, and co-chairs business group Women for Change.
She previously did stints at the ASX-listed Tyro Payments, Australian Ballet, Museum of Contemporary Art, Australian Defence Force Academy, Australian-Japan Foundation and the SCG Trust. Leave some candied pecans for the rest of ’em Cath.
But the most relevant one to her new role was as the first female commissioner of the Australian Rugby League Commission. Headed by V’landys, it acts as the governing board of the NRL, which was formed when the old-News Limited collapsed its interests in 2012. One of her nine children is also
Lachie Harris, the former press secretary to
Kevin Rudd – back when Lachie was boy wonder of comms.
So Cathy has been moving in powerful circles for a long time, and she knows the web of interests around NRL House. She’ll need it! Doing governance at the new PNG team might be the riskiest role going.
For one, there’s so much money involved. The PNG experiment is being primarily funded by the taxpayer with $600 million over 10 years from the foreign affairs budget. V’landys
told this masthead earlier this year it was
Anthony Albanese’s idea to put a team in Port Moresby, part of a geopolitical pushback against China in the region. That puts it in the firing line of Canberra bean counters and Senate Estimates.
It’s also going to be pumped with cash from the PNG Prime Minister
James Marape, including $36 million for the bid process and $150 million for an “NRL Village” in the capital. That’s to keep visiting league players safe, as security is also a key worry.
So it is hardly reassuring that one person has already been kicked from the board. As revealed by our friends at
The Sydney Morning Herald and
The Age, the leader of PNG’s bid (and local businessman)
Wapu Sonk sent a letter to a Chinese contractor encouraging them to use the services of a separate Australian company owned by … Sonk
. Marape called the allegations “serious” and removed him from the club’s board in July (Sonk denied all allegations of wrongdoing).
The PNG government and NRL have been slowly filling out their allocated seats on the board. Businessman
Ian Tarutia, local rugby league manager
Lorna McPherson, former Melbourne Storm winger
Marcus Bai, ex-Macquarie banker (and racehorse owner)
Richard Pegum and SP Hunters’ PNG chairman
Stan Joyce have all been named to the board, according to the federal government. Former Canterbury Bulldogs chairman
Ray Dib will head the board. V’landys told us that Harris was put forward by them.
The rugby league chief putting a team in league-mad PNG is another audacious 40/20 kick in a career full of them. It carries so much obvious upside. But at risk is the money and reputations for all involved. That’ll now include Harris’.
www.thenational.com.pg
