Netball Australia Loses $15M Mining Sponsor After Female Team Protests on Climate Change Grounds

Courtney Bruce of the Australian Diamonds defends against Grace Nweke of the Silver Ferns during the Constellation Cup match between the Australia Diamonds and the New Zealand Silver Ferns at John Cain Arena in Melbourne, Australia on Oct. 19, 2022. (Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)

Australia’s wealthiest person and her mining company on Saturday pulled an AU$15 million (US$9.53 million) sponsorship deal from Netball Australia after the former captain of its women’s team convinced some players to protest in support of climate change.

Gina Rinehart, and her company Hancock Prospecting, which mines iron ore (not coal), said she was withdrawing sponsorship due to disunity within the sport and after inaccurate reporting on her company’s work with Indigenous communities.

Hancock also said media reports that the national Diamonds netball team were upset at wearing the mining company’s logo on their uniforms was false.

In the meantime, the company has promised to provide four months of funding to give Netball Australia time to arrange an alternative sponsor. The league is several million dollars in debt, with managers only last month securing Hancock as a partner.

Gina Rinehart speaks to John Bertrand the Swimming Australia President during day five of the Australian Swimming Championships at the South Australian Aquatic and Leisure Centre in Adelaide, Australia on April 11, 2016. (Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

“Hancock and Roy Hill were not made aware prior to the proposed partnerships, of the complexity of existing issues between Netball Australia and the Players Association," the company said in a statement.

Hancock Prospecting owns Roy Hill, which sponsors Netball Australia’s Western Australia branch and team West Coast Fever.

The mining company noted as well that the players union was pushing to get “a very substantial increase in wages” at a time when the sport was “reeling financially” and unable to increase pay.

“Hancock and Roy Hill do not wish to add to Netball’s disunity problems, and accordingly Hancock has advised Netball Australia that it has withdrawn from its proposed partnership effective immediately,” the company added.

The company noted that activists often “conveniently” neglect to understand that “mining is critical to securing the minerals essential for everyday life.”

Media Reporting Inaccurate

In a separate statement addressing recent media coverage of the dispute, Hancock said sports sponsorship should be free of “social and political causes.”

“The reality is that sponsorship is integral to sports organisations—for full-time professionals right through to young children at grassroots level—who rely on corporations investing the funds that enable all sports to not only survive, but thrive,” the company’s state reads. “Sadly, recent media does not help encourage sporting sponsorships.”

Hancock also noted it provided extensive support to Indigenous communities.

The recent protest against Hancock is spearheaded by former national team captain Shani Norder, who spoke to team members about whether the Diamonds should be associated with the mining giant.

She told Fox Sports the mining giant “doesn’t suit Netball Australia’s values.”

“We’ve always stood up for social justice, we’ve always been anti-gambling, no smoking,” she said, saying there were other avenues for sponsorship. Some media framed the issue as a “player revolt” against Hancock’s support.

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