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Australia’s richest woman, Gina Rinehart, sensationally GETS a $15 million sponsorship deal with Netball Australia after players raised concerns about racist comments her father made 38 years ago
- Gina Rinehart has pulled a $15 million sponsorship deal from the Diamonds netball team
- Mining company Hancock Prospecting revealed it would pull out of the deal
- Move comes after concerns over comments from late Lang Hancock
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Gina Rinehart has withdrawn her $15 million sponsorship from the Diamonds after the national netball team raised concerns about the deal.
Her mining company Hancock Prospecting released a statement on Saturday revealing it is withdrawing its support for the Australian team.
The move comes after the team raised concerns about the mining company’s environmental impact and made comments about Aboriginal people by Ms. Rinehart’s father Lang Hancock in the 1980s.
Native player Donnell Wallam reportedly felt uncomfortable wearing the uniform with the Hancock Prospecting logo.
Contrary to media reports, Hancock Prospecting has not insisted that his name be carried abroad by the Australian Diamonds in the current Constellation Cup series,” said Hancock Prospecting.
Gina Rinehart has withdrawn her $15 million sponsorship from the Diamonds after the national netball team raised concerns about the deal
Donnell Wallam (pictured) is an Aboriginal woman and member of the Australian Diamonds netball team
“Hancock and Roy Hill do not want to add to Netball’s divisive problems and so Hancock has informed the governing body that it has withdrawn from the proposed partnership, effective immediately.”
The partnership between Hancock Prospecting and Netball Australia is reportedly worth $3.5 million a year through the end of 2025.
The company has promised to fund the team in the short term until it is able to land a new sponsorship.
Hancock and Roy Hill have advised Netball Australia and Netball WA respectively that it will instead provide a four-month sponsorship if they and their players are willing to accept it, to continue funding the athletes and to help Netball arrange alternative funding and sponsorship,” the company said.
In a 1984 television interview, Mr Hancock made a shocking statement about Indigenous Australians.
“Those who aren’t good to themselves and can’t accept things, the half-castes — and this is where most of the trouble comes in,” said Mr. Hancock in the 1984 documentary, “Can’t Be Fairer.”
Gina Rinehart (right) is pictured with her father Lang Hancock, who started the Hancock Prospecting company. His comments from a 1984 interview angered members of the Diamonds team
“I would anesthetize the water so that they are sterile and would reproduce in the future and that would solve the problem.”
Hancock died in 1992 at the age of 82, saying that Indigenous Australians who had been “assimilated” should be left alone.
“Those who are assimilated to, you know, earn a good living or earn wages in the civilized areas,” he said.
“Those who have been accepted into society and they have accepted society and can handle society, I would leave them alone.”
Former Diamonds captain Sharni Norder told the current squad that Hancock Prospecting is “a company that does not fit in with Netball Australia’s values.”
Ms. Rinehart previously said that climate change is not a man-made phenomenon.
“We’ve always stood up for social justice, we’ve always been against gambling, no smoking… and there were and are other ways to seek sponsorship,” said Ms Norder, Ambassador of the Sports Environment Alliance.
More to come