Former Netball Captain Steps in to Spark Revolt Against Mining Sponsorship Deal

Liz Watson of the Australian Diamonds and Phoenix Karaka of the Silver Ferns during game two of the Constellation Cup series between the New Zealand Silver Ferns and the Australia Diamonds at TrustPower Arena in Tauranga, New Zealand on Oct. 16, 2022. Mark Tantrum/Getty Images

Cash-strapped Netball Australia has delayed the rollout of new uniforms featuring the logo of mining giant Hancock Prospecting after a former captain criticised the company’s head, billionaire Gina Rinehart, who has been sceptical of the climate change movement.

The women’s team have reportedly opted out of wearing the new jersey and wants more time to understand the situation in response to former team captain Sharni Norder’s criticisms.

The move comes after Netball Australia signed a $15 million four-year sponsorship deal with Hancock Prospecting last month which is due to run until 2025 and supports a high-performance program.

Netball Australia’s financial woes are well known, with the fledgling competition—which has undergone several revamps—revealing a $4.4 million loss in the most recent 2021 financial year, up from $1.6 million in 2020.

CEO Kelly Ryan said the organisation was open to accepting sponsorship from gambling companies to help keep the competition afloat, akin to the National Rugby League.

Former Team Captain’s Intervention Causes Team to Hit Pause Button

The recent protest against Hancock Prospecting is being spearheaded by Norder who said 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 told Fox Sports, saying there were other avenues for sponsorship.

She also criticised the company’s founder, Lang Hancock, who died in 1992, for his comments regarding Indigenous people.

“I did a Zoom with the players just to educate them on doing right by the sport but also doing right by yourself and honouring your own values,” she said. “I just wanted to have a conversation: ‘Is that 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 open climate denier.”

Yet Hancock Prospecting mines iron ore, not coal, which is what is used in coal-fired power stations and is a source of carbon emissions.

Rinehart has, in the past, been critical of the climate change movement, arguing that science has not been properly discussed.

A bucket-wheel dumping soil and sand removed from another area of the mine in Newcastle, Australia, the world's largest coal exporting port, on Nov. 5, 2021. Saeed Khan/AFP via Getty Images

“Please be very careful about information spread on an emotional basis, or tied to money, or egos, or power-seekers, and always search for the facts, even if the tide is against you, and it’s not considered popular,” she told students via a video recorded message at St Hilda’s Anglican School for Girls in October 2021.

“Facts may not be popular, but that shouldn’t mean they should be overlooked,” she said in comments obtained by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

“It’s important that the school does stick with reputable science,” she added. “There is clear misinformation, clear non-factual information about climate change, and I don’t think that’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 Indigenous Community

In response to Norder’s actions, Hancock Prospecting said its sponsorship would provide financial certainty to the sporting organisation for the years to come, noting the deal with Netball Australia gave it the flexibility to re-invest in its grassroots.

Netball Australia was previously courted by Tier 1 global private equity group to fund the sport, which would have obligated the organisation to pay back investors.

Further, in response to criticisms of Lang Hancock’s attitudes towards Indigenous communities, the company said nowadays, it had extensive partnerships with native title holders.

“Hancock has positive agreements with all the native title holders in the areas we operate in, providing very significant royalty payments to the traditional owners in all our mining areas, well in excess of $300 million in the last seven years alone,” the company said in a statement to The Epoch Times.

“We work very closely with the communities on providing training, jobs, business development and contracting opportunities as well as heritage, health and education initiatives. Hancock recently awarded a significant mining contract for the Miralga Creek mine to a traditional owner business from the area, the first such award we are aware of in the Pilbara, which is working very well.”

Climate Change Conclusions Not a Done Deal: Eco-Modernist

The decision to consider the deal comes after California-based eco-modernist Michael Shellenberger told a CPAC audience in Australia that the state of the environment today is in a much better condition than is being portrayed by climate change advocates and media.

He said there was more coral in the Great Barrier Reef than there had ever been in 36 years. At the same time, the area of land burned by forest fires had declined by 25 percent globally since 2003—an area the size of Texas.

“What about hurricane frequency? I had the great pleasure of correcting one of the witnesses on a [U.S.] Congressional Panel a couple of weeks ago, who claimed that hurricane frequency and intensity were increasing,” he told attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference—Australia. “In fact, the best available science predicts that there will be a 25 percent decline in hurricane frequency in the future, even alongside a five percent increase in intensity, which we are not seeing at this point.”

Shellenberger said three factors were driving the global push for climate change action.

“There’s financial motivation by people that want to sell renewables, particularly solar panels made in China. There’s the desire for kind of political power, cultural power, social power,” he previously told The Epoch Times. “And then there’s sort of the ways in which climate change has become a religion, and it’s provided people with a kind of purpose in life.”

Nina Nguyen contributed to this article.