Origin Energy CEO Frank Calabria has voiced his support for Australian national netball team the Diamonds amid the netball team’s fallout with former sponsor Hancock Prospecting and its executive chair Gina Rinehart.
Calabria said Origin Energy would continue to sponsor Netball Australia and the Diamonds, and that he welcomed athletes speaking out on important subjects like climate change and other social issues—even if it created conflict with their employers or sponsors.
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Calabria told a news outlet, “I’m actually OK with people voicing their views. Like anyone, athletes have an entitlement to their view, and their opinions and views actually do carry some influence. I think they need to think about the influence they carry when they express them.
“But in any gathering of people … there will always be an array of different opinions and views. My key thing in all of that is that you have an environment where people are listened to and respected, and as a result of that, they’re heard.
“It doesn’t, on the face of it, [make us] shy away from the way we think about sponsorships. What we think about is, do we actually have an alignment of values with the organisation that we are dealing with? When it comes to climate change, I think what’s important is that we come together to agree the size and scope of the challenge and actually go after it together.
“And if we do that, respectfully, and align on that, that’s really a good thing from my perspective.”
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Origin Energy joins major netball sponsors Suncorp, HCF, Nissan and Woolworths in backing the sport after Hancock Prospecting withdrew its backing after Diamonds players voiced reservations over historical racist comments made by Gina Rinehart’s father, Lang Hancock.
Many commentators have called for Rinehart to apologise for her father’s racist views but she has refused to do so, instead pulling out of the Diamonds sponsorship.
