Gina Rinehart should distance herself from her father's comments, says Andrew Gaze
Australian basketball great Andrew Gaze has denounced billionaire Gina Rinehart staying quiet about her father's comments about Indigenous Australians.
Rinehart's decision to pull $15 million worth of sponsorship dollars from Netball Australia has severely impacted the game's finances.
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Her decision was influenced by indigenous Diamonds player Donnell Wallam, who said she was uncomfortable wearing a uniform with Rinehart's company logo, Hancock Prospecting, after her father Lang Hancock made offensive comments about indigenous Australians in the 1984 documentary Couldn't be Fairer, eight years before his death
"Those that have been assimilated into earning good living and earning wages among the civilised areas and have been accepted into society and can handle society, I'd leave them well alone," he said at the time.
Gina Rinehart recently topped Australia's Financial Review Rich List for the third consecutive year. Fairfax Media / Lisa Maree Williams
"The ones that are no good to themselves … I would dope the water up so that they were sterile and would breed themselves out in the future, and that would solve the problem."
But according to Gaze, the onus is on Rinehart to distance herself from her father's comments.
The former Boomers star 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.
Andrew Gaze speaks on camera during the half time break of the International Basketball Friendly match between Australian Boomers and Canada at RAC Arena on August 16, 2019 in Perth, Australia. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images) Getty
"I am not blaming Gina Rinehart for her father's comments, but what I don't understand is why she won't very publicly disassociate herself from them.
"(She should say), 'I love my dad, but (that was wrong)'.
"If my dad had said that, or if my uncle, or anyone associated with me, or if my friend said it, (I would say), 'I love this person, I'm still going to love him, but I'm going to educate him, I'm going to say, no, that is not the right way to deal with that issue, it is actually vile what you've said'."
"If you can't reconsider that, then I'm going to question our friendship, if you're going to maintain that view, then you're not a friend of mine.
"Let's talk about it, let's discuss it, let's figure it out, but if you can't come to the conclusion that sterilising human beings isn't actually a good thing, then you're no friend of mine."
