Lisa Wilkinson takes aim at 'naive' Gina Rinehart over netball furore

The Netball Australia sponsorship debate has taken a fresh turn, with Gina Rineheart accused of being 'naive' in her response to player concerns about her company sponsoring the Diamonds.

Hanckock Prospecting, owned by Rinehart and founded by her father, Lang Hancock, withdrew a $15 million offer to sponsor Netball Australia after players united behind only the third Indigenous player in Diamonds history.

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Donnell Wallam, due to debut for Australia in the upcoming series against England, had reservations about wearing the Hancock Prospecting logo due to comments made by Langcock in the 1980s.

Among other statements, Hanock suggested sterilisation would be an appropriate response to 'the Aboriginal problem', and Diamonds players have backed Wallam in her hesitancy.

However as the controversy unfolded, Wallam attempted to compromise before Hancock Prospecting pulled the sponsorship offer in its entirety, offering a statement saying it wanted the company logo to be worn by all players 'with pride'.

Rinehart has never made any public comments on her father's views, but put out a public statement following the sponsorship withdrawal suggesting there was 'disunity' among players - an allegation Netball Australia has rejected.

The controversy was subject to discussion on Channel 10 program The Project, with host Lisa Wilkinson putting it out there that Rinehart's suggestion that sport and politics should remain separate was 'naive'.

“The idea that sport and politics and issues of social justice can be completely separated is really naive,” she said.

“You think back to the Australian teams that wouldn’t tour South Africa during the Apartheid era.

"You even think about things like big tobacco used to sponsor the NRL. It was called the Winfield Cup.”

The controversy comes as multiple off-field debates have hit the Australian sporting world, with Essendon's ill-fated appointment of Andrew Thorburn chief among them.

During the season, the Manly Sea-Eagles were also forced to deal with a controversy regarding certain players refusing to wear a pride themed jersey, prompting a seven-game losing streak for the team.

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Co-host on The Project, Hamish McDonald, said what struck him in each of the aforementioned controversies was the fact that each seemed to involve little consultation, if any, with players themselves.

“In each of those circumstances it seems like the club or the code hasn’t quite done enough thinking about the culture within the organisation or the sport and had the conversations that might be necessary to make those things possible,” he said.

“You know, obviously the points made here, why didn’t they have a conversation about discussing what had been said in the past?

“And dealing with that up front. I mean, you can understand how for an Indigenous player it would be very difficult to wear a logo like that.”

It comes as the Netball Australia Players Association boss, Kathryn Harby-Williams, said the group was 'disappointed' in the lack of negotiations.

She revealed players had sought an exemption only for Wallam not to wear the logo, while the rest of the team would do so.

“It’s been a shock, obviously everyone is extremely disappointed but I think we need to clarify here the players' position has always been that they were prepared to wear the logo during the Constellation Cup,” Harby-Williams told ABC Grandstand.

“We had come to an agreement with Netball Australia where everyone was comfortable that would happen and that Donnell and the players would not be required to wear the logo against England in the three-match series starting shortly.

“At no point in time did the players seek to have the deal fall off the table but we were certainly willing to come to a compromise and had agreed to that shortly after the players stood by Donnell.”

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