According to AI-assisted research, the Kokoda Trail program has been outsourced by DFAT to two major international contractors—Abt Global (USA-based) and Oxford Policy Management (OPM, UK-based)—through their ‘Kokoda Initiative’.

Abt Global is a significant DFAT delivery partner in Papua New Guinea (PNG). In 2020, it held dozens of DFAT contracts with a combined approved value of approximately A$1.6 billion (PNGK4.4 billion), with roughly 70 per cent of its portfolio focused on PNG.

OPM is a UK-based development consultancy responsible for the Quality and Technical Assurance Group (QTAG) under the DFAT PNG–Australia Governance Partnership. QTAG evaluates and reviews programs managed by Abt Global.

In effect, Abt Global designs and delivers multi-million-dollar programs in PNG, while OPM provides oversight, evaluation, and technical advice while Austraian taxpayers unbeknowingly pick up the tab.

AI-assisted analysis also suggests that large international development organisations frequently expand their activities by attaching additional social, environmental, and governance programs to well-known brands such as the Kokoda Trail. This process—sometimes described as “development creep”—can attract additional aid funding through initiatives such as World Heritage and protected-area management, gender equity and gender-based violence programs, community governance, livelihood support, and climate change.

Given the 52 per cent decline in Kokoda trekker numbers since Australian agencies assumed oversight of the Trail in 2009, it is reasonable to review the performance and influence of DFAT’s Kokoda Initiative Strategic Advisor, Mr Mark Nizette MBE, during his tenure from 2011 to 2024.

Key questions include: What advice did he provide? To whom? And what outcomes were achieved? Notably:

  • Management systems: No new management systems were introduced by the Kokoda Track Authority (KTA) during this period, raising questions about whether relevant advice was provided to the PNG Government.
  • Military heritage: No funding was allocated to preserving or interpreting the Trail’s military heritage, suggesting limited advice to either government on this matter.
  • Heritage expertise: Mr Nizette supported the engagement of an American anthropologist—without military service or military-history credentials—as Australia’s National Military Heritage Advisor in PNG, which may have influenced the framing of the shared military-heritage narrative.
  • KTA leadership: He also supported the appointment of a PNG Deputy Secretary, with no background in commercial management, military heritage, pilgrimage tourism or trekking, as CEO of the KTA—an arrangement that may have increased dependence on external advisers.
  • Legislative development: His involvement in drafting a proposed “Kokoda Track Management Authority” Act without consultation with traditional landowners or Kokoda tour operators suggests a direction for the Trail’s governance that was not broadly shared.

Mr Nizette’s strategic input into the allocation of aid-funded projects across the Trail likely increased his influence among provincial and local-level officials, as well as landowner groups operating out of Port Moresby. His appointment as Secretary of the Ministerial Kokoda Initiative Committee (KIC) within the Conservation and Environment Protection Authority (CEPA) would have further expanded his network and authority, given the flow of aid funds through this agency.

His role in the removal of a former KTA CEO, the appointment of an unqualified acting CEO, and his relocation back into the KTA office in 2018 placed him in a position of substantial influence over key levers of Kokoda Trail management at national, provincial, and local levels.

Meanwhile, significant departmental restructuring occurred in Canberra during this period. “Heritage” was removed from the portfolio when the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts was rebranded as the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities (DSEWPC), and later as the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW). Frequent staff turnover associated with each reorganisation, combined with Mr Nizette’s fluency in Tok Pisin, likely amplified his institutional influence.

Each departmental reshuffle saw the Kokoda Initiative move further towards environmental, climate change and social programming, with diminishing attention to military heritage—despite the Trail’s global significance in Australia’s wartime history.

The continuing decline in trekker numbers, combined with the current dysfunction of the management system developed under Mr Nizette’s watch, raises important questions about whether his influence ultimately supported the interests of village communities, strengthened the interpretation of shared military heritage, or primarily aligned with the priorities of international development contractors.

Further Reading:

Mr. Mark Nizette MBE