According to AI research the Kokoda Trail has been outsourced by DFAT to USA based Abt Global, and UK based, Oxford Policy Management (OPM) via their Kokoda Initiative.
Abt Global is a major USA based DFAT delivery partner in PNG. In 2020 the international conglomerate held dozens of DFAT contracts with a combined approved value $A1.6 billion (K4.4 billion). Roughly 70% of Abt’s portfolio is PNG-focused.
OPM is a UK based global development consultancy that runs the Quality and Technical Assurance Group (QTAG) for the DFAT PNG–Australia Governance Partnership. They evaluate and review Abt-managed program work.
In essence, according to AI, Abt Global runs and implements multi-million dollar programs in PNG while OPM checks and advises them.
AI also reveals that international aid conglomerates such as Abt Global and OPM take a popular brand such as the Kokoda Trail then use a form of ‘development creep’ to introduce other social inclusion and environment programs which attract additional aid-funding. These include World Heritage and protected area management, gender equity programs, gender based violence, community governance strengthening, village livelihoods, and climate adaptation.
In view of the dramatic 52 per cent fall in Kokoda trekker numbers since Canberra took control of the Kokoda Trail in 2009 it’s an appropriate time to question the role of the DFAT Kokoda Initiative ‘Strategic Advisor’, Mr. Mark Nizette MBE, during his tenure from 2011 – 2024.
Key questions include: What advice did Mark Nizette provide? To whom? And what outcomes were achieved? Notably:
- Management systems: No new management systems were introduced by the Kokoda Track Authority (KTA) during his tenure, 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 issue.
- Heritage expertise: Nizette supported the engagement of an American anthropologist—without any 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: Nizette also supported the appointment of a PNG Deputy Secretary, with no background or qualifications in commercial management, military heritage, or pilgrimage tourism, as CEO of the KTA—an arrangement that may have increased dependence on him after he relocated himself back into the KTA office.
- Legislative development: Nizette’s clandestine involvement in drafting a proposed “Kokoda Track Management Authority” Act without any consultation with traditional landowners or Kokoda tour operators suggests his views for the Trail’s governance was not broadly shared.
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 PNG 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 he could no longer influence, the appointment of an unqualified acting CEO as his replacement, 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 his tenure.
“Heritage” was removed from the portfolio when the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts was rebadged 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 Nizette’s fluency in Tok Pisin, likely amplified his institutional influence.
Each departmental reshuffle saw the Kokoda Initiative move further towards environmental and social programming, with diminishing attention to military heritage—despite the Trail’s global significance in Australia’s military history.
The continuing decline in trekker numbers, combined with the current dysfunction of the management system developed under Mark Nizette’s watch, raises important questions about his loyalties and whether his influence ultimately supported the interests of village communities, strengthened the interpretation of our shared military heritage, or primarily aligned with the priorities of international development contractors.
Whatever, the 50th anniversary year of Independence is an opportune time for PNG to break from the shackles of international aid-dependence and reclaim ownership of their most popular tourism destination for the economic benefit of the traditional landowner communities who own it.
For this to happen the following action steps need to be consicered:
CANBERRA:
- Acknowledge that the primary reason Australians choose to trek across the Kokoda Trail is related to the military history of the Kokoda campaign;
- Transfer responsibility for the oversight of the Kokoda Trail from the Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water (DCCEEW) to the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA)
- rebadge the ‘Kokoda Initiative’ within the PNG Conservation Environment Protection Authority (CEPA) as the ‘Owen Stanley Ranges Initiative’ to reflect its role in environmental ‘Protected Area Managemen‘t‘;
PAPUA NEW GUINEA:
- Rescind National Executive Council (NEC) Decision 123/2019 which sought to have the Kokoda Trail managed as an environment park by Conservation Environment Protectin Authority (CEPA) rather than as a tourism eterprise by the Tourism Promotion Authority (TPA);
- Use the provisions of the Lands Act 1996, and the Lands Acquisition (Development Purposes) Act 1974, to acquire the 20 metre wide,154 km Kokoda Trail between Owers Corner and Kokoda as gazetted in 1972 as a national tourism asset.
- Transfer responsibility for the management of the Kokoda Trail from the Minister for Provincial and Local Level Government Affairs, and the influence of the Minister for Environment, Conservation and Climate Change, to the Minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture.
A Blueprint for Consideration
The following blueprint for pilgrimage tourism across the Kokoda Trail has been developed in good faith by Adventure Kokoda trek leaders who have a combined total of 160 years professional military service and who have led more than 750 expeditions safely across the Kokoda Trail over the past 34 years.
