Victorian taxpayers can add another $15 million to the state’s burgeoning debt problems after Premier Daniel Andrews announced its tourism body would step in to sponsor cash-strapped Netball Australia.
The sporting league lost its major sponsor Hancock Prospecting just over a week ago after some team members expressed concerns over being associated with the mining giant citing climate change and Indigenous issues.
On Oct. 31, Victorian Labor Premier Daniel Andrews announced that government-funded Visit Victoria will become a major partner of the national Diamonds team until June 2027.
As part of the $15 million deal, the Diamonds will play five test matches in the state, and the 2023 national team competition final will also be held in Victoria.
“Victoria is our nation’s sporting capital and its best tourist destination – it’s only right we launch this new partnership to back elite netball in Australia and promote our state to the world,” said Premier Andrews in a statement.
While Netball Australia CEO Kelly Ryan said, the partnership will give Victorians the “opportunity to experience more netball” over the next four and a half years.
In response, Victorian state MP David Limbrick said the state’s debt was already blowing out to “huge proportions.”
“I think this is just a bailout for an organisation that can’t find another sponsor, and the taxpayers have been forced to step up as the last resort,” the Liberal Democrat told The Epoch Times.
Victoria’s state debt is estimated to be around $170 billion—with accumulating interest payments—while Netball Australia is also struggling financially, recording a $4.4 million loss last financial year.
Netball Australia is the governing body for the sport of netball in the country, which is predominantly played by women. The sport is yet to reach the scale of larger leagues like the Australian Football League and National Rugby League.
Former Captain Attempts to Spark Revolt on Progressive Issues
Yet controversy erupted on several fronts after former team captain Sharni Norder held a Zoom call with the current team highlighting her concerns with the sport being associated with Rinehart.On the one hand, she cited concerns with comments made by Rinehart’s father, Lang Hancock, in 1984 suggesting Indigenous communities should be sterilised. On the other, she has targeted the company on climate change issues, despite the fact Hancock Prospecting actually mines iron ore, not coal.
Much of the team reportedly wanted time to consider the issue rather than act on Norder’s comments, with the team given the option not to wear a uniform featuring the Hancock Prospecting logo.
On top of this, Hancock also accused the players’ union of taking advantage of the situation to try to get a “very substantial increase in wages” at a time when the sport was “reeling financially.”
In response to the spate of problems, Hancock, on Oct. 22, decided to pull the plug and withdraw its $15 million commitment to the sport—at the same time, cutting mining company Roy Hill’s sponsorship of the local team, the West Coast Fever.
“Hancock and its Executive Chairman, Mrs. Rinehart, consider that it is unnecessary for sports organisations to be used as the vehicle for social or political causes,” said a statement from Hancock.
“There are more targeted and genuine ways to progress social or political causes without virtue signalling or for self-publicity.
“For example, the meaningful engagement with local Indigenous communities undertaken by Hancock’s Roy Hill Community Foundation in Western Australia to support their actual needs.”
