Olympic swimming legend Dawn Fraser has thrown her support behind mining magnate Gina Rinehart amid the sponsorship scandal that’s left Netball Australia on the brink of financial disaster.
Rinehart withdrew $15m of funding from Netball Australia on Saturday following pushback from players to wearing the logo of her mining company Hancock Prospecting.
Now Fraser has hit out at the playing group, declaring she can’t believe what they are doing while praising Rinehart for her financial backing of numerous minor or less marketable sports in Australia.
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“I appreciate the fact that I’ve been associated with Mrs Rinehart. I really can’t understand the netballer that pulled the plug,” Fraser told 4BC Drive.
“Mrs G (Rinehart) has done a hell of a lot for not only swimming, but she’s looked after beach volleyball, she’s looked after women’s rowing and women’s synchronised swimming.
”I mean heavens above – what are these women doing.”
Fraser, a four-time gold medallist and one of the country’s most celebrated athletes, also revealed her fears that Australia’s richest person would now stop sponsoring sport in the country given the public backlash to her mining company in recent weeks.
“I don’t think (the players have this story straight) and I don’t know the full story either, but I really cannot understand it, it’s bad for the sport, it’s bad for those girls she said no to,” Fraser said.
“She might stop her sponsorship with other sports now and I’d hate to see that happen to be honest with you.”
The Diamonds playing group’s opposition to wearing a Hancock Prospecting logo on their jerseys centres on concerns from the team’s only Indigenous player Donnell Wallam regarding comments made by Rinehart’s father Lang Hancock.
Hancock infamously suggested in 1984 Indigenous Australians should be sterilised to “breed themselves out” in coming years.
Speaking on Tuesday, Fraser argued Rinehart shouldn’t be made to answer for the sins of her father.
“She’s not her father, I’d hate to be in her position and being slammed over the fact that my father did some things wrong,” Fraser argued.
“She’s a hard business woman, she’s been brought up in a hard business family.
“She’s now gone the other way and she’s helping people in sport to achieve to the best of their ability.
“Netball Australia has really gone wrong on this attitude I just think it’s so bad for the sport.”
