Australian basketball royalty has called out Gina Rinehart for not ‘distancing’ herself from her late father Lang Hancock whose comments about Indigenous Australians has seen the collapse of a $15million deal with Netball Australia.
Andrew Gaze, who played 22 seasons for the Melbourne Tigers, said it was poor form of the billionaire to simply cancel the sponsorship and not make a statement against her father’s statements about the Aboriginal ‘problem’.
Mr Hancock suggested Indigenous Australians be sterilised in order to ‘breed themselves out’ in coming years during an interview from a 1984 documentary.
‘Those that have been assimilated into earning good living and earning wages among the civilised areas and have been accepted into society and can handle society, I’d leave them well alone,’ the mining magnate said at the time.
‘The ones that are no good to themselves… I would dope the water up so that they were sterile and would breed themselves out in future and that would solve the problem.’
Gina Rinehart, the chair of Hancock Prosepecting, should publicly distance herself from her father’s racist comments after he suggested Aboriginal Australians should be ‘sterilised’
Andrew Gaze (pictured in 2019) said if he was in Ms Rinehart’s position, he would call out the ‘vile’ comments and pledge to education the person who had made the racist remarks
Gaze said while he didn’t blame Mr Hancock’s daughter for the racist sentiments, he believes she should have made effort to publicly disassociate herself from them.
‘She could have apologised for her father’s comments, distanced herself from them and told us that she doesn’t believe those things. Instead, she pulled her money out,’ the former basketball player said on SEN The Run Home.
‘(She should say), ‘I love my dad, but (that was wrong)’.
Gaze said if his father, uncle, or friend made such a comment, he would make a statement saying he would still love them but would make efforts to educate them.
Unfortunately, this is not an option for Ms Rinehart, whose father died in 1992.
Indigenous Diamonds player Donnell Wallam (pictured) raised concerns over wearing the Hancock Prospecting logo on her uniform, with her teammates backing the decision
‘If you can’t reconsider that, then I’m going to question our friendship, if you’re going to maintain that view, then you’re not a friend of mine,’ he continued.
‘Let’s talk about it, let’s discuss it, let’s figure it out, but if you can’t come to the conclusion that sterilising human beings is actually a good thing, then you’re no friend of mine.’
Gaze is the latest in a string of high-profile politicians, athletes and commentators to weigh in on the unfolding sponsorship saga.
Mr Hancock’s racist remarks have made headlines this month after Indigenous Diamonds player Donnell Wallam raised concerns over wearing the Hancock Prospecting logo on her uniform, with her teammates backing the decision.
CEO of the Australian Netball Players Association Kathryn Williams said the Diamonds hadn’t wanted their only Indigenous player to be wearing a different uniform when she made her debut for the team.
The partnership between Hancock Prospecting and Netball Australia is reportedly worth $3.5million a year until the end of 2025 (pictured, The Diamonds pose in 2017)
Under increasing pressure, Wallam decided on Friday that she would wear the logo on her international debut, but by Saturday the deal was pulled from the table – leaving her ‘distressed’ and ‘devastated’ by the bombshell decision.
‘I don’t know what happened from the time Donnell said she would wear the logo as would the team to Hancock moving on,’ Ms Wiliams told the Today Show.
Hancock Prospecting axed the lucrative $15million partnership deal, claiming in a statement it ‘does not want to add to netball’s disunity problems’.
‘Contrary to media reports, Hancock Prospecting has not insisted that its name be worn by the Australian Diamonds in the current Constellation Cup series when overseas,’ the statement said.
‘Hancock and Roy Hill does not want to add to Netball’s disunity problems and accordingly Hancock has advised the governing body that it has withdrawn from its proposed partnership, effective immediately.’
The partnership between Hancock Prospecting and Netball Australia is reportedly worth $3.5million a year until the end of 2025.
It comes as a massive blow for the sporting organisation after it had struggled to find a big time sponsor prepared to pay the hefty sum.
Indigenous NRL legend Anthony Mundine (pictured in June) urged Australia’s elite netballers to stick together in the face of the partnership controversy
It comes after Indigenous NRL legend Anthony Mundine urged Australia’s elite netballers to stick together in the face of the partnership controversy.
Anyone that thinks like him, speaks like him, believes what he believes, is detrimental to humankind,’ Mundine told News Corp.
‘Donnell should stay strong and stay staunch in her beliefs. She (Gina Rinehart) could have apologised for her father’s comments, distanced herself from them and told us that she doesn’t believe those things. Instead, she pulled her money out.’
Mundine insisted that a lot of people are on Wallam’s side and called on her teammates to support her amid the public pressure.
