Elite netballers reveal distress after singer who pleaded guilty to domestic violence performs at grand final
Siala Robson, who appeared on The Voice in 2020, was one of three Universal Music singers selected to entertain more than 15,000 netball fans during half-time at Rod Laver Arena last Saturday.
Robson appeared in court in Queensland last year and pleaded guilty to two charges of assault occasioning bodily harm in a public place while adversely affected by an intoxicating substance. No conviction was recorded and Robson was ordered to pay $1,000 in compensation and given a community service order of 60 hours.
Players union the Australian Netball Players' Association [ANPA] issued a statement on Friday expressing the distress of their athletes.
'ANPA is extremely disappointed that an individual, who has previously been found guilty of domestic violence charges, was engaged to perform at one of the sport's premier events,' it said.
'This decision has caused genuine hurt among the playing group and undermines the values they stand for – particularly their strong and ongoing commitment to ending domestic violence in Australia.'
Netball Australia issued a statement saying they were not aware of the offences committed by Robson before the event and the matter was only brought to their attention after the match.
'Netball Australia has a zero-tolerance position on violence and actively campaigns against domestic violence with the support of our playing group, who are deeply connected to this society-wide issue,' it said.
'With respect to the necessary checks and balances in place, we relied on the third-party agency we partnered with to supply the talent. This was not sufficient and Netball Australia will immediately strengthen its event risk management protocols to ensure this doesn't happen again.'
Universal Music has been contacted for comment.
ANPA said they acknowledged Netball Australia has accepted responsibility for 'this serious oversight' and appreciated the governing body's commitment to ensuring it does not happen again.
Sign up to Australia Sport
Get a daily roundup of the latest sports news, features and comment from our Australian sports desk
after newsletter promotion
'Our players have consistently used their platform to advocate for change,' the union said.
'They wore purple armbands at every Suncorp Super Netball match last year to raise awareness of violence against women, recently produced a video reaffirming their commitment to being part of the solution, and continue to work on further initiatives aimed at making Australia safer for all.'
Melbourne Vixens defeated West Coast Fever in the entertaining decider, watched by a record crowd of 15,013. The total attendance for the Super Netball season was 386,455, making it the past year's most-attended women's sporting league in Australia.
In Australia, the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. In the UK, call the national domestic abuse helpline on 0808 2000 247, or visit Women's Aid. In the US, the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Other international helplines may be found via www.befrienders.org.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Times
an hour ago
- Times
England answered most questions — but Jacob Bethell needs red-ball games
At the beginning of the summer I thought it was important for England to beat India — and for there to be fewer unanswered questions by the end of the series. England would desperately have wanted to win, and although they didn't manage it I saw them develop as a side. I think there are definitely fewer questions that need answering than at the start of the series, so there are a lot of positives to take. There were question marks over Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope at the start of the summer, and debate over whether Jacob Bethell should play, but there is no doubt now about the top seven. If there are no injuries it is set in stone: Crawley, Ben Duckett, Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes and Jamie Smith. Going to Australia with everyone comfortable in their place is of massive importance. This team has been built for this tour to Australia and they now have a lot of experienced players — people with 50 or 60 caps, or many more in some cases — who are fully integrated into the side. If you go back to the series we won in 2010-11 that's what you need. Crawley and Pope did what you would have expected them to do — they more or less averaged in the series what they average in their career: Crawley 32 in the series compared to 31 overall and Pope 34 compared to 35. With Crawley you can look at his individual figures but you should really look at his opening partnership with Duckett, which is world class. It's partly down to Duckett's form over the past 18 months, but between them they really have the ability, whoever is bowling, to change the whole feel of the game. And Pope, although he declined as the series went on, has looked more solid and I thought he fell over less often to the off side. A year ago I would have said England's approach was very rigid and they played the same way no matter the game situation or conditions, whereas now you can see they adapt. Look at the Oval Test. In the first innings, with the ball nipping about, Crawley and Duckett took the attack to India and put on 92 inside 13 overs. But in the second innings conditions had flattened out a bit and they played the situation sensibly, putting on 50 in 14 overs. Even Brook, who made a brilliant century in the second innings, will learn from it. He came in with England really struggling and played himself in before smashing 28 from ten balls. It changed the game, and if he had got out playing an expansive shot at that stage I couldn't have criticised him. But then he settled into a really good rhythm with Root and they needed just over 70 to win with seven wickets in hand. England were in total control and he didn't need to play the shot he played at that point. Sitting in the changing room he will have known what he should have done, and if he's faced with the same situation in Melbourne this winter I really think he will have learnt. If Bethell is going to go to Australia as the spare batsman, logic would suggest he should play red-ball cricket for Warwickshire in September, rather than playing in England's white-ball games against South Africa and Ireland. He really struggled at the Oval, having faced only 67 balls in first-class cricket this summer. His two scoring shots were dancing down the wicket to give himself room and hitting a boundary through the off side. That's not a consistent way of scoring in Test cricket. A lot of things have changed under this group in the way Test cricket is played but a few things have stayed the same. As a young player, you just need time to play and to learn the format. In terms of the bowlers, I think England just need to go into the series with a set plan to rotate the seamers and stick to it. They need to think that Jofra Archer will play these particular Tests and the same for Mark Wood, Gus Atkinson and the other seamers. Atkinson looked so much better at the Oval, when he was bowling in the high 80mphs, than at the end of last summer, when he was tired and had bowled a lot and was down to the low 80s. Coming up with a plan for rotation is something that is very easy to do on paper and harder to do in practice, but it is amazing what can happen if you have a plan and stick to it. I think they will take several spinners with the Lions, who are going to be out in Australia — Liam Dawson, Shoaib Bashir, Rehan Ahmed and one other. I think it's hard to judge Dawson on one Test. It's not as though Ravindra Jadeja was running through England — a lot of his wickets were caught on the boundary. India really surprised me in the series with their incredible resilience. After conceding 669 at Old Trafford and then being 0 for two, I thought they would break as a side, but they fought back brilliantly. Mohammed Siraj is a real lesson to any cricketer. When he came on to bowl you never knew what he had done in his previous spell, whether it had gone well or badly. He came into bowl thinking, 'How can I make a difference in this spell?' It's a real lesson in thinking about what you can do in the future, not what you've done in the past.
Daily Mail
4 hours ago
- Daily Mail
As the elite FLOCK to an Australian capital city for art and parties... the poor face an army of security guards: CANDACE SUTTON exposes disturbing crisis at popular tourist spot
It is the time of year when Sydney and Melbourne 's elite flock to Australia's booming northern-most city of Darwin for its horseracing carnival, prestigious Aboriginal art fair and, this year, the lawyer's picnic that is the trial of Netflix star Matt Wright. Meanwhile, Thompson Nganjmirra, 76, is sitting in a park in central Darwin. He nervously eyes a growing storm in the distance and wonders whether he will have to spend the night sleeping in the rain. Thompson tells the Daily Mail that he is one of Darwin's 'long-grassers' - the local name for the city's homeless population. They are known as such because they slept and begged in the tall spear grasses which once ringed the city. Sitting in Civic Park, just a few hundred metres from the Northern Territory Parliament and Supreme Court complex, Thompson is without a regular bed to sleep in or even a blanket. He has been caught short in the rain before. Darwin is a city divided. By most indicators, it is booming. Property prices have surged and rents are high. The warm, dry summer attracts a huge influx from out of state and a party-like atmosphere in town. Meanwhile, the Northern Territory's homelessness rate is twelve times the national average. Ninety per cent of the homeless in Darwin are Indigenous, many sleeping in the city's parks and bushland. 'Sometimes it's hard to get enough to eat,' Thompson admits. The Daily Mail spent four days recently reporting from Darwin and speaking to the locals - and learned that much has changed in the city over the past six years. That was when Darwin's politicians and civic leaders turned to private security firms to patrol areas of Darwin's CBD and suburbs during the day and night - including the khaki-clad Public Order Response Unit, or PORU, focused on the suburbs; and the 'blue shirts' of Territory Protective Services, who patrol the city's CBD. Also on patrol is Larrakia Nation, a service run by the peak group of the local traditional Aboriginal landowners. The group aims to prevent alcohol-related disputes and resolve problems and conflicts. Thompson shrugs his shoulders at the mention of the 'blue shirts', who, locals said, often wake sleeping people in the night to move them on. 'Some are good, some bad,' Thompson said. 'They tell us we can go here, but not there. It's okay if you have a place to sleep.' He breaks into his native language, Kunwinjku, to speak to his niece, 54-year-old Lillian Yulidji, who is sheltered with her uncle and other relatives under a large park tree. 'Blackfellas are used to them (the blue shirts) now,' Thompson said. A spokesman for the so-called 'blue shirt' company, TPS, said it had been contracted by the NT Police to maintain public order for six years and did not condone violence or ill-treatment of Darwin residents. With Darwin's peak tourist season underway - the art fair lasting four days, attracting buyers from Sydney and Melbourne's elite, and the Darwin Cup running at the Darwin Turf Club at Fannie Bay - both PORU and Larrakia Nation were patrolling the shores of Lake Alexander, at East Point Park. When the Mail visited on an afternoon late last week, Aboriginal family groups were gathered together while white people jogged and exercised along the boardwalks. Sitting amid council signs warning 'no camping or sleeping overnight', the families sat watching the sun sink over the water. Some of the group were drinking. Officers from PORU and Larrakia spoke with them. They dragged one old man off into a van which had a containment unit at its rear, much like a police paddy wagon. Political debate erupts The treatment of the city's homeless population and the government's crime policies are a hot political debate. Darwin mayoral candidate Leah Potter, who is campaigning on an 'end homelessness' ticket at this month's council election, told the Mail 'it is not a crime to homeless'. Potter was furious about plans by the NT government to further expand its law enforcement forces. The government wants to arm transit and public housing safety officers - who currently patrol buses, supermarkets and public housing - with firearms as part of a crime reform package. The new police auxiliaries will be on the streets by 2026. 'You can just imagine how that will play out,' she said. 'It is not a crime to be homeless, but what could possibly go wrong?' Meanwhile, the NT Government has just issued a new Bus Dress Code policy, placing signs on buses advising passengers with 'dirty or stained clothes' will be refused travel. 'This is clearly aimed at Indigenous people, the homeless and the mentally ill,' Potter claimed. 'When you have no roof or running water, or access to laundry facilities, meeting these so-called 'standards' is impossible. So, they're punished for poverty.' The Northern Territory Department of Logistics and Infrastructure told the Daily Mail that its Rules of Travel, displayed on all buses, 'ensure a safe and respectful environment for everyone using public transport'. A spokesman said that under those rules, 'a passenger could be asked to leave a bus if they are wearing soiled clothing that may leave dirt, grease, bodily fluids or damage a seat which could be used by another passenger'. They said that drivers or transit officers could 'exercise discretion and ask a person not to board the bus'. However, 'it is extremely rare for someone to be refused entry due to hygiene.' Potter, who runs the Sunset Soup Kitchen in Darwin, is on personal terms with most of the 200 Indigenous rough sleepers who populate the inner city, some of them regularly setting up camp in her street. She is a Territorian by birth, with a rollercoaster history living in Sydney and Melbourne. 'I am campaigning to change the shame, disempowerment and other factors contributing to homelessness,' she said, 'which is inequality, education, health, joblessness, imprisonment, violence against women. 'Aboriginal women are killed in alarming numbers. They are more than 10 to 12 times more likely to be victimised, assaulted and murdered than any other group of women.' But she admits she is unlikely to win against the twelve other candidates, and that her Roadmap Out of Homelessness 'is a really hard sell to Territorians'. 'It's about dignity and respect. You've got 40kg blackfellas about to die of chronic disease. They are human beings,' she said. 'But instead the NT Government wants to focus on fining people for breaking the law because sleeping in public parks is illegal.' Although, even at this time of year the daytime temperature in Darwin is a steady 31 degrees, it can drop to 17 overnight, a shivering prospect under a wet tree. Darwin's shelters always fill up fast, especially on rainy nights, and places like Spin Dry out at Berrimah are too far to walk. 'The cost of living crisis has pushed even more people onto the streets of Darwin, and the bus dress policy will mean getting access to food, health care, Centrelink and even family will be more difficult,' Potter said. 'To be excluded from a public service simply because of the clothing you're wearing is appalling.' As for Thompson and his niece Lillian, thankfully, they have found an 'uncle' who can house them for at least one night, and that means they will get a feed. Thompson has been coming to Darwin on-and-off from Oenpelli, a mission bordering Kakadu National Park in West Arnhem Land, for 25 years, and Lillian for 'a long time'. They are considering a return to their country. 'Might go back for Christmas, it's really good back there,' he said.
The Sun
6 hours ago
- The Sun
‘Woe is you' – Luke Littler savaged by announcer for interview after winning Australian Darts Masters
DARTS sensation Luke Littler was on the receiving end of a cheeky dig from the announcer following his Australian Darts Masters victory. The 18-year-old added to his trophy cabinet on Saturday with victory over Mike De Decker. 3 He beat the Dutch thrower 8-4 to secure his fourth World Series title. But not all was well in the world of Littler based on his post-match interview. When asked what his plans were between his win and the New Zealand event next weekend, he said he would sleep. "We don't have it easy us darts players," he joked. The announcer snapped back with his own tongue in cheek response, quipping "woe is you" at the teenager. Sleep, or lack thereof, has been a recurring theme for the English thrower during his tournaments Down Under. In an interview earlier in the tournament, he relayed his troubles with remaining fully awake at the oche. Littler said: "People don't see behind the scenes but body clock, [I've] not been sleeping too much over here, but I am just getting used to it now." 3 His plan to remain prepared for the rest of the tournament was short but sweet, and clearly ended up working for him. He added: "Get some good sleep tonight and try to stay awake as much as possible." Luke Littler responds to calls for him to retire after Australian Darts Masters Littler's meteoric rise in the world of darts has seen him build up quite the trophy cabinet, and bank account, since his debut two years ago. His victory in Australia means he bags the £30,000 top prize. But that is just a drop in the ocean of his career earnings, with his net worth reportedly exceeding £1.5million, including over £1m in winnings from 2024 alone.
