Target – Hancock Prospecting.Lang Hancock’s racist comments frozen for all to see. Personalised the pain that our First Nations people suffer. And polarised the nation.
What happened? Wallam sought an exemption from wearing a uniform bearing the logo of Hancock Prospecting. No wonder she resisted. I won’t repeat the hideous comments about First Nations people made by founder of the miner,Lang Hancock. Those comments were a disgrace and the company should have apologised long ago. Get rid of the portraits of Lang from the company foyer and website. Nothing to honour here.
Wallam’s own team backed her choice. Then the pressure started. Poor bloody woman. She finally caved so the sport,in financial strife again,could get $15 million. Cruel Hancock Prospecting withdrew its funding anyway. That just shows Wallam saw straight through to the bleak heart of this matter. We can’t unhear Lang Hancock’s words. Hancock’s executive chair,Gina Rinehart,boldly said sports organisations shouldn’t be used for social or political causes yet Hancock and others sportswash their companies on the reg. Is it an attempt at virtue-signalling when conservatives do it?
We must stop thinking of athletes as the property of their various franchises,workers without any agency or autonomy. Cricket Australiatried to break a strike years ago and failed. Athletes are labourers who entertain us – and,as workers,they have a right to strike over pay and conditions. I wish other athletes would do that too. There’s a bunch of sponsors who deserve a good striking. Gambling. Alcohol. Any business that is part of the gig economy and doesn’t pay its workers properly nor ensure its workers are safe.
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Athletes are workers. Professional athletes are ever harder workers. Yes,they are often paid well (if briefly) but that must not mean buying silence. They compete to entertain spectators. Us. You. Me. Training at 5am. More training after that. Still more training when most of us are slumped in front of Netflix. It’s hard labour. It looks like fun to us because we aren’t running endlessly into hard muscle nor belting up and down on a hard court.
These people work bloody hard and deserve to have some say on where they work,how they work and who they work for. They should be able to reject blood money if that’s what they think it is.