‘If you don’t subscribe, they cancel you’: Alan Jones claims Australia is a country of ‘one view’

Polarising radio shock jock Alan Jones has taken a huge swipe at athletes looking to take a stand against commercial backers and the organisations that adhere to their demands in a scathing review of Australia’s sporting landscape

Polarising radio shock jock Alan Jones has taken a huge swipe at athletes looking to take a stand against commercial backers and the organisations that adhere to their demands in a scathing review of Australia’s sporting landscape.

Jones teed up at Australian netballers and cricket players while acting as a guest speaker at the Northcliffe Surf Club Sportsman’s Lunch on Friday.

The former Daily Telegraph columnist, who was axed in 2021 following controversial commentary around Covid, began his speech by reigniting conversation about Netball Australia’s sponsorship debacle with mining magnate Gina Rinehart in October 2022.

Alan Jones speaks at the lunch. Picture: Glenn Hampson.

The now infamous controversy began when the Diamonds’ only current Indigenous player, Donnell Wallam, raised concerns over donning the logo of Hancock Prospecting, who had proposed a $15 million sponsorship deal with the financially struggling sport – a deal later broken.

“I know it’s a sportsman’s lunch, and I thought I’d address a few preliminary comments about that,” Jones said.

“People say, ‘How is Australian sport managing?’

“And I think you’ve got to only look at outfits like netball and cricket to understand the modern metaphor where here are people like Gina Rinehart wanting to give significant amounts of money to a sport that’s dead on its feet, and suddenly the girls believe they that they can’t really identify with any of that because Gina Rinehart’s father somewhere down the track was involved in some argument about nothing at all.”

In pictures: BMD Northcliffe Sportsman’s Luncheon

VIEW GALLERY

Rinehart’s father and former owner of Hancock Prospecting, Lang Hancock had said in the 1980s that Indigenous Australians should be sterilised to solve “the problem”.

“If I was coaching the show I’d say “I’m not going to tell you if you should wear the gear or not, but I can find twenty or thirty or forty who are prepared to wear the gear, so goodbye,“ Jones said.

The crowd, built predominantly of older men, whooped and cheered.

“It’s the same in cricket, we’re worried about Alinta Energy, but I see Alinta Energy are still on the front of the jersey.

“We’ve become a country of one view, and if you don’t articulate that view or subscribe to that view, you are cancelled or they shut you up.

“It’s our fault, we’ve got to realise that our view is as good as the next blokes.”

Jones later told the audience that he “didn’t want to get political today”.