Dawn Fraser throws support behind Gina Rinehart, slams players over sponsor stoush

The Olympic legend has thrown her support behind Gina Rinehart – revealing her big fear for Australian sport in the wake of her sponsorship stoush.

Dawn Fraser has criticised the Diamonds playing group over their opposition to Gina Rinehart. Pic: Getty

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.

“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.”

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(L-R) Kieren Perkins, Gina Rinehart and Dawn Fraser are seen watching on during the Australian Short Course Swimming Championships in Melbourne, Friday, October 25, 2019. (AAP Image/Sean Garnsworthy)

Olympic swimming great Dawn Fraser at the Brisbane Aquatic Centre. Pics Adam Head

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.”

While plenty, including the likes of Australian boxing royalty Anthony Mundine, have slammed Mrs Rinehart’s actions, some First Nations leaders say her support for Australia’s Indigenous community more broadly has been invaluable.

(L-R) Courtney Bruce, Jo Weston, Liz Watson, and Jamie-Lee Price of Australia pose for a photo with the Constellation Cup as they celebrate victory after the Constellation Cup match between the Australia Diamonds and New Zealand Silver Ferns. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)

Former chairman of the Coalition government’s Indigenous Advisory Council, Nyunggai Warren Mundine, tasked those “b**ching” about the fallout to put their money where their mouth is and fork out for Netball Australia by other means.

“[Lisa Wilkinson] and Peter [Ford] got a few bucks,” he tweeted, responding to the two journalists.

Wilkinson recently took an on-air swipe at Mrs Rinehart, refuting claims from the miner that sport and politics can be separated.

“Donate it to Netball Australia,” Mr Mundine continued.

“In fact, all the people b**ching and complaining about Gina Rinehart here, put your money where your mouth/tweeter is.

“I reckon with all the whinging here; you could easily raise more than $15m. And even I can support that.”

Another to praise Mrs Rinehart for her contributions to Indigenous Australians was Clinton Wolf, managing director of National Indigenous Times and non-executive director of Madalah LTD, a not-for-profit that offers secondary and tertiary education scholarships for Indigenous children in Western Australia.

He argued that Mrs Rinehart had let her actions do the talking over the years.

16/8/19: Warren Mundine Chippendale, Sydney. John Feder/The Australian.

In an op-ed published by the National Indigenous Times, Mr Wolf detailed in length how significant Mrs Rinehart’s funding was to Madalah and other Indigenous organisations.

“Madalah is chronically underfunded, due in part to the Western Australian Government continually refusing to provide any funding which is ironic given they have reaped a record $11 billion budget surplus in the last two years due in no small part to the mining industry,” he wrote.

“If it wasn’t for the Federal Government providing some funding as a result of decisions made by the former Federal Minister for Indigenous Affairs Nigel Scullion and current Minister Linda Burney, the future of Madalah and the exceptional service and support it delivers would have been bleak at best.

“It was because of these reasons, the Board of Madalah made an unprecedented and absolutely necessary decision to approach WA Industry about providing ongoing funding in a desperate bid to secure as many Indigenous scholarships for prospective students as it possibly could.

“The Madalah Board’s decision ended up being correct because when it comes to supporting Indigenous education In Western Australia, it is Industry that has stepped up to the plate to address the widening funding shortfall.”

Mr Wolf said Rinehart’s Roy Hill Community Foundation developed the Hanrine Futures Program, approaching Madalah to partner with them to secure scholarships.

Mrs Rinehart’s venture Hancock Prospecting has a history of supporting initiatives for Indigenous Australians.

“The Roy Hill Community Foundation quickly committed to a multi-year, multimillion-dollar funding arrangement to ensure that many Indigenous kids could now have the opportunity they so desperately needed,” he continued.

“The Roy Hill Community Foundation’s Hanrine Futures Program funded by the Hancock Group of companies will provide long-term scholarships as well as training, work experience and internships through to employment.”

“Did Madalah agonise over partnering with Mrs Rinehart and her companies? Absolutely not.”

“Madalah is proud to say that Mrs Gina Rinehart’s companies are among Madalah’s most important sponsors and supporters.”

Mr Wolf took umbrage with links being made between Gina Rinehart and her late father, Lang Hancock’s past comments about Indigenous people.

“Since when do we judge someone because of who their parents are or were or what they said?” Mr Wolf said.

“What people perceive about someone is often the exact opposite of who that person actually is.

“Madalah’s experience has been that Mrs Rinehart is a kind and generous person who genuinely cares about Madalah and its Indigenous students.

“Mrs Rinehart should be applauded for her generous sponsorship of Netball Australia, Madalah and a host of other very worthy causes that desperately need financial support, which she supports without fanfare.

Aussie Diamonds player Donnell Wallam, the team’s first indigenous player in 20+ years. Source: Instagram

“While others have criticised her from the sidelines, she does deeds with a good heart. Actions always speak louder than words.”

Indigenous Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price was another Indigenous leader to back Ms Rinehart’s decision, labelling Netball Australia’s response “utterly ridiculous”.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous that there’s this notion that it’s okay now days, to judge individuals on the basis of what their mother, father, uncle, aunty, somebody who their related too, did,” she told Sky News on Monday night.

“If that was the case, there would be a lot of people, Indigenous people included, that we would all look down upon because of someone else’s actions or behaviours.

“It’s utterly ridiculous that this ever occurred.”

Mr Price said Ms Rinehart’s contributions to Indigenous Australia “deserved respect”.

“She (Gina) has supported Indigenous Australians across a number of various ways … and she’s been extremely generous because she cares about the welfare of Indigenous Australians,” she said.

“To turn around and decide ‘oh hang on a second, no I don’t want to wear this because I am choosing to be upset by comments made by somebody else related however many years ago’ … it’s ridiculous.”

As for Ms Price’s thoughts on Netball Australia, she didn’t hold back.

“Unless you’ve got a cool few million in your back pocket to support your sporting code, your woke sense of self-importance should be your private opinion and your private opinion only,” she said on Facebook.