Australia’s wealthiest person and her mining company on Saturday pulled an AU$15 million (US$9.53 million) sponsorship deal from Netball Australia after the former captain of its women’s team convinced players to protest in support of climate change.
Gina Reinhart, and her company Hancock Prospecting, which mines iron ore (not coal), said she was withdrawing sponsorship due to disunity within the sport and after inaccurate reporting on her company’s work with Indigenous communities.
Reinhart said players from the Diamonds netball team are upset about wearing the mining company’s logo on their uniforms.
Hancock promised to provide four months of funding to give Netball Australia time to arrange an alternative sponsor. The league is several million dollars in debt, with managers only last month securing Hancock as a partner….