Dawn Fraser concerned Gina Rinehart may pull out of sports sponsorship after netball debacle

Swimming legend Dawn Fraser believes Netball Australia has gone "really wrong" with its handling of the sponsorship fiasco surrounding the sport.

Speaking on Radio 4BC, Fraser said she was concerned Gina Rinehart would pull her sponsorship of other sports having withdrawn her $15 million deal with NA and the national squad the Diamonds

"(Rinehart) is helping people in sport to achieve to their best ability, and ... Netball Australia has really gone wrong on this attitude," she said.

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"I just think it's so bad for the sport. It's bad for to those girls that have said no to (the sponsorship) because ... she might stop the sponsorship with other sports and I think our sport in this country would go down and I'd hate to see that happen."

Fraser said Rinehart - who also sponsors the Australian swimming and rowing teams - was a "good-hearted person" and a "hard businesswoman".

She also said Rinehart was a constant figure around the swim team, and claimed the mining magnate wasn't in it for the publicity.

"Mrs G 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," Fraser said.

"Heavens above, what are these girls doing? I mean, she's associated with some of the best sports and some of the, you know, (non-mainstream) sports."

On Tuesday afternoon, basketball legend Andrew Gaze denounced Rinehart staying quiet about her father Lang Hancock's suggestions in 1984 that indigenous people be sterilised to "breed them out".

The whole sponsorship fiasco began when uncapped Diamonds player Donnell Wallam reportedly refused to wear a Diamonds dress displaying the Hancock logo in her expected debut against England this week.

Gaze said Rinehart could have easily smoothed things over.

"She (Gina Rinehart) could have apologised for her father's comments, distanced herself from them and told us that she doesn't believe those things. Instead, she pulled her money out," he said on SEN.

Fraser suggested Rinehart shouldn't have to apologise for her father's words.

"No, she's not her father. I mean, I'd hate to be in this position and being fought over the fact that my father did some things wrong," Fraser said.

"She's been brought up with a hard business family, and she wouldn't be the person she is today if she hadn't ... done by the rules (her) father set out."

Uniform controversies that have rocked sport around the world

Uniform controversies that have rocked sport around the world