Cash-strapped Netball Australia delayed the rollout of new uniforms emblazoned with the logo of mining giant Hancock Prospecting after a former captain spoke out against the company’s leader, billionaire Gina Rinehart, who was skeptical about the movement against climate change.
The women’s team are said to have opted out of wearing the new shirt and want more time to figure out the situation in response to criticism from former team captain Sharni Norder.
The move comes after Netball Australia last month signed a four-year, $15 million sponsorship deal with Hancock Prospecting which is due to run until 2025 and supports a high performance programme.
Netball Australia’s financial struggles are well known, with the fledgling competition – which has undergone several reshuffles – revealing a loss of $4.4m in the last financial year of 2021, down from $1.6m in 2020.
CEO Kelly Ryan said the organization was willing to accept sponsorship from gambling companies to help keep the competition afloat, similar to the National Rugby League.
The intervention of the former team captain forces the team to press the pause button
The recent protest against Hancock Prospecting is led by Norder who said the mining giant ‘does not match the values of Netball Australia’.
“We’ve always stood for social justice, we’ve always been anti-gambling, non-smoking,” she told Fox Sports, saying there were other sponsorship opportunities.
She also criticized the company’s founder, Lang Hancock, who died in 1992, for his remarks about indigenous peoples.
“I zoomed in with the players just to educate them to do the sport well but also to do well on your own and respect your own values,” she said. “I just wanted to have a conversation, ‘Is this money worth your reputation and what you stand for as a person?'”
Norder also wrote on Twitter that it was “unacceptable to put our brand alongside an outspoken climate denier”.
Yet Hancock Prospecting mines iron ore, not coal, which is used in coal-fired power plants and is a source of carbon emissions.
Rinehart has in the past criticized the climate change movement, arguing that the science has not been properly discussed.
“Please be very careful about information that is spread on an emotional basis, or related to money, ego or power seekers, and always seek the facts, even if the tide is against you and it is not isn’t considered popular,” she said. pupils via a video message recorded at St Hilda’s Anglican School for Girls in October 2021.
“The facts may not be popular, but that doesn’t mean they should be ignored,” she said in comments obtained by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
“It is important that the school sticks to reputable science,” she added. “There’s clear misinformation, clear non-factual information about climate change, and I don’t think it’s appropriate in the school system.
Rinehart’s company has been a prolific supporter of Australian sports for over 30 years, including elite swimming, volleyball and rowing.
Hancock Prospecting’s work with the Aboriginal community
In response to Norder’s actions, Hancock Prospecting said his sponsorship would bring financial security to the sports organization for years to come, noting that the deal with Netball Australia gave him the flexibility to reinvest in his base.
Netball Australia was previously courted by a global Tier 1 private equity group to fund the sport, which would have required the organization to repay investors.
Additionally, in response to criticism of Lang Hancock’s attitude toward Indigenous communities, the company stated that it has numerous partnerships with Indigenous titleholders.
“Hancock has positive agreements with all Aboriginal title holders in the areas where we operate, providing very significant royalty payments to traditional owners in all of our mining areas, well in excess of $300 million over the past seven years only,” the company said. in a statement to The Epoch Times.
“We work closely with communities to provide training, employment, business development and contracting opportunities, as well as heritage, health and education initiatives. Hancock recently awarded a major mining contract for the Miralga Creek mine to a traditional landlord company in the area, the first such contract we know of in the Pilbara, which is working very well.
Conclusions on climate change Not a done deal: eco-modernist
The decision to consider the deal comes after Californian eco-modernist Michael Shellenberger told a CPAC audience in Australia that the state of the environment today is in much better shape than portrayed climate change advocates and the media.
He said there were more corals in the Great Barrier Reef than there had ever been in 36 years. At the same time, the area of land scorched by wildfires had shrunk by 25% globally since 2003, an area the size of Texas.
“What about the frequency of hurricanes? I had the great pleasure of correcting one of the witnesses on a [U.S.] Congressional panel a few weeks ago that claimed hurricanes are increasing in frequency and intensity,” he told attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference – Australia. “In fact, the best science available predicts that there will be a 25% drop in hurricane frequency in the future, even alongside a 5% increase in intensity, which we don’t see at this time. stadium.”
Shellenberger said three factors were driving the global push for action on climate change.
“There is a financial incentive for people to sell renewable energy, especially solar panels made in China. There is a desire for some kind of political power, cultural power, social power,” he previously told The Epoch Times. “And then there’s kind of how climate change has become a religion, and it’s given people some sort of purpose in life.”
Nina Nguyen contributed to this article.
