Prime Minister Laaulialemalietoa Leuatea Schmidt ordered police to remove senior journalist Pio Sioa during a joint press conference with Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong on Wednesday morning.

The incident occurred at the new Legislative Assembly site at Mulinuu after Newsline owner and senior journalist Pio Sioa asked questions about the $150 million Australian government funding arrangement for rugby involving Samoa, Fiji and Tonga.

Sioa asked Wong whether directing Australian rugby funding through the government exposed the aid to domestic political influence. He also questioned whether the pledged funding for the Samoa Rugby Union (SRU) would be withheld based on the Prime Minister’s position.

“As a guest in your country, I’m not going to get involved in domestic politics,” Wong replied.

She said Australia was awaiting a collective proposal from Samoa, Tonga and Fiji regarding additional rugby union funding and would consider it once received.

“We always expect reasonable governance in every funding arrangement that we have with whichever country we are,” Wong said, adding that rugby funding was separate from broader budget support for education, climate and cyber initiatives.

Departing from conventional bilateral talking points, Laaulialemalietoa outlined his concerns to Wong about rugby administration and said the government intended to address what he described as politicisation within Samoa’s rugby structures.

“Rugby is a game that is really important to us,” he said. “But somehow, it’s been politicised.”

The exchange grew tense as Sioa continued to ask questions. The Prime Minister then instructed police to remove him from the venue, accusing him of being “disrespectful.” Police approached Sioa. He later said he left voluntarily.

“This has nothing to do with the police. This is the media doing its work,” Sioa said afterwards. He rejected suggestions that he was disrespectful and said he was carrying out his role as a journalist. He also dismissed claims that his questioning was politically motivated.

Laaulialemalietoa said rugby should be “in the hands of the players and the people that love rugby the most” and that local issues needed to be resolved before further steps were taken.

At the end of the press conference, the prime minister apologised to Wong.

“I apologise, Honourable Minister, for the media personnel here. You see now the importance of rugby here. Everybody is arguing about the rugby,” he said. Sioa said he was not arguing but only asking a question. The Prime Minister told reporters to direct further questions to him the following day.

The press conference followed a topping-out ceremony for the new Legislative Assembly Office, where Australia announced a four-year $12 million climate resilience partnership. The incident comes a day after the Samoa Observer was barred from attending a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signing involving the prime minister and Wong.