Accusations aired on Australian television of money laundering involving high level officials in Papua New Guinea should be investigated by both countries, PNG says.
Prime Minister Peter O'Neill has asked his foreign minister and attorney-general to engage with Australian authorities with a view to having the SBS Dateline claims investigated.
The program featured a private investigator attending a secretly filmed-meeting at a leading PNG law firm, at which corruption and influence peddling allegations were discussed.
The investigator, who posed as an investor, was shown with Young and Williams Lawyers co-owner Australian Greg Sheppard talking about politicians seeking bribes over land sales.
Mr Sheppard has reportedly lived in PNG for 25 years and is a former Queensland Crown Prosecutor.
Mr O'Neill has called the allegations "alarming" and says his Foreign Affairs Minister Rimbink Pato and the country's Attorney-General Ano Pala are seeking to have the matter probed in Australia as well.
"For decades Papua New Guinea suffered at the hands of foreign and local people who sought to take advantage of the then young nation," Mr O'Neill said in a statement in Sunday.
"We called them spivs and carpet baggers and over the course of time legislation has been introduced to stop these activities."
Mr Sheppard has responded to the SBS saying his comments were "general, hypothetical and merely descriptive".
