Victorian taxpayers to fill netball’s coffers, says Daniel Andrews

Minutes before his Treasurer confirmed a $1.8bn budget blowout, Daniel Andrews revealed a deal to fund the hole left by Gina Rinehart’s split with Netball Australia.

Victorian taxpayers will fill the $15m hole left by Gina Rinehart’s split with Netball Australia, under a Visit Victoria sponsorship deal announced by Daniel Andrews.

The Victorian Premier’s announcement on Monday came minutes before his Treasurer, Tim Pallas, confirmed a $1.8bn budget blowout, pushing the state’s 2022-23 deficit to almost $10bn.

The mid-year economic and fiscal update shows Victoria ­remains on track to have more debt than NSW, Queensland and Tasmania combined, with those states’ debt set to reach $159.2bn by 2025-26, when Victoria’s hits $165.4bn.

The sponsorship deal follows Ms Rinehart’s decision to end a $15m agreement between her family company Hancock Prospecting and Netball Australia, amid a ­series of player objections ranging from concerns over climate change to comments made by Ms Rinehart’s father, Lang Hancock, in 1984 when he said he would like to “solve the problem” of unemployed Indigneous Australians by sterilising them via their water supply.

The Victorian government deal was welcomed by Netball Australia, whose chief, Kelly Ryan, said several organisations had sought to sponsor the sport in the period since the Hancock agreement ended, but none had moved as fast as Victoria.

Ahead of Tuesday’s issuing of writs for the November 26 state election, Mr Andrews spruiked the $15m outlay, which will run until June 2027, as a “major coup” for Victoria, where the Diamonds would “showcase the nation’s sporting capital” of Melbourne, with branding on their team kit.

“Other states wanted this (but) Visit Victoria worked very quickly, and very well,” Mr Andrews said.

“Alongside promoting netball at the elite level, the partnership will deliver community initiatives to encourage grassroots participation in the sport, particularly in culturally diverse communities.

“Netball boasts the highest level of participation among young women (of) any sport in Australia – and as one of the ­nation’s most popular national teams, the Diamonds are an inspiration for women and girls across all levels of sport.”

As part of the deal, players and coaches will be involved in campaigns to prompt Victoria as a tourist destination.

Hancock Prospecting‘s Gina Rinehart.

The Diamonds will also play five Test matches and hold training camps in Victoria between next year and 2026, and play the 2023 Suncorp Super Netball grand final in the state.

The news comes a day after the Diamonds took an unbeatable ­series lead over England in front of 14,000 fans in Newcastle.

Ms Ryan said the response from Victoria and other sponsors had been swift and significant.

“Visit Victoria has been a great partner of ours for a little while, it’s not like it’s a new partnership but they certainly did reach out last weekend and asked if we could have some conversations,” she said. We literally rolled it through in just a few days.”

Players were told on Thursday that a new sponsor was on board but there was no announcement as to who that was until Monday morning.

“We had a number of ­approaches from a range of different sponsors who also want to show their support for the sport. Those conversations will continue but nothing has materialised as quick as the Visit Victoria partnership,” Ms Ryan said.

She said she was confident the sport would be left in a better position because of the controversy.

“We’d like to think that being really transparent about where the sport has been financially has certainly opened up a number of positive conversations,” she said.

“We will finish this year in a better position than last year and the aim is to keep building on this.”

Netball lost $7m in the past two years, primarily because of Covid, and Ms Ryan said and was carrying $4.2m debt.

Former Australian captain Sharni Norder, who had advised the players during the Hancock controversy, said she was ecstatic about the deal.

“I’m absolutely stoked for the sport and the players and for Netball Australia to have a positive outcome after the last few weeks,” she said.

“A lot of us had faith there would be a positive outcome. I am happy to put my hand up and say I had a crack at Netball Australia about its values and the like but I think this is in perfect alignment with their values.”

A spokeswoman for Ms Rinehart declined to comment.

Victorian opposition Treasury spokesman David Davis said that although the announcement had come a day before the pre-election caretaker period starts, the ­Coalition was “not in the business of ripping up contracts and we will be honouring this sponsorship agreement should we be elected to government”.

“While the Netball Australia sponsorship is not undeserved, with $165.4bn of debt and the deficit blowing out by another $1.8bn this year, many people will be wondering why Daniel Andrews is able to fund netball, but can’t properly fund essential services such as health and fixing triple-0,” he said.

The Coalition’s assistant government scrutiny spokeswoman, Bev McArthur, took a stronger position, saying Victorians “should be furious”.

“The Premier said there was a competitive market for the deal – including private investors. These are the people who should be coughing up the funding, not taxpayers sweating rising living costs and interest rates,” she said.