High flyers

Kate Palmer is the CEO of Netball Australia. She speaks with Alex Malley, chief executive of CPA Australia, about what netball has taught her – and her ambitions for the sport.

Alex Malley: Was your family sporty while you were growing up?

Kate Palmer: I spent an idyllic childhood waterskiing, walking, horseriding and swimming. Growing up in country Victoria, sport was part of life but it was more than just playing – we had responsibilities. My brothers were involved in football, my mother coached the netball and softball teams and a local treasurer took me under her wing at a very young age to help her with the books. Now that I think back, she must have been a very patient woman.

What do you think young people can gain from playing sport?

Connecting with friends and community is really important in team sports and it gives you basic ideas around sharing, fairness and communicating. Individuals who have any leadership ability tend to come to the fore and find an opportunity to be a role model. It also allows children to have significant others involved in their life – coaches and schoolteachers – who can impart real skills.

Doesn’t becoming the administrator of a sport that you love water down some of the passion and fun of it?

Many years ago, I got to the point where my whole life was the game of netball. It became too much. I stopped playing and took up individual sports – golf, triathlons and skiing – where it was nice to be able to challenge myself as an individual and not have responsibility for others on a sports field. But the sport really has been a vocation. Being involved in other businesses and activities – more than 10 years on the MCG Trust, six years as the chair of the Victorian Institute of Sport and being involved with the advisory group at ASADA [Australian Sports Anti-doping Authority] – has really broadened my perspective and has kept me interested.

How far off do you think we are from seeing female athletes being paid as much as their male counterparts?

In some sports it’s almost there – tennis and basketball, for example. Netball is working really hard nationally to contract athletes for a 12-month period to ensure they’re paid a salary that they can live on and allows them

if they want – and most do – to study or work or run their own business. Our ambition is to have full-time paid athletes. Most of our Diamonds [the Australian team] will be in that position now.

Do you find it ironic that team sports played by professional athletes have so much trouble with misconduct?

We can learn a lot from other sports. We will stumble from time to time but we’re fortunate to have elite athletes who are so connected with their communities that they like to be called role models. These women really believe in what they can do for young people.

Next year, viewers will be able to watch every match of the national league on free-to-air television, including two games during Saturday-night prime time. That’s quite a turnaround. What was the case for the value proposition here?

We’ve seen massive growth. The ANZ Championship has brought incredible growth in all metrics: spectators, revenue and broadcast figures. We have one of the Nine Network’s commercial team embedded in our organisation, working on our commercial program. For them, it’s a business decision – this wasn’t about being nice for women’s sport. We have strong figures around what we can achieve and we’re confident we’re going to do that.

How are you going with winning over a male audience?

“We’re fortunate to have elite athletes who are so connected with their communities that they like to be called role models.” KATE PALMER

The audience looks very different now in the venues. There are still a lot of little girls sitting in the audience, don’t get me wrong, but we’re also seeing many more males. Certainly, dads love the opportunity to go to the netball with their daughters and wives. Usually their first reaction when they see it live is about how physical it is and how skilled the athletes are. We need to start talking to men differently and we’re targeting mixed and male participants. We need more men in the game.

In June, the Turnbull government pledged $10 million to netball in Queensland. Are governments doing enough to encourage the sport?

Governments, both state and federal, have invested a lot in netball for a number of years. The reality is that people are doing sums about Olympic medals but that’s not what it’s all about. I think the government needs to invest more in the high-performance pathway and also the participation pathway because of the issue of obesity in Australia.

There have been quite a few headlines about sexism in sport and you were quoted as saying you’re committed to changing society’s attitudes. How are you going to go about doing that?

It’s really about calling out things that you don’t believe and that aren’t appropriate. For me, it’s about whether organisations are helping young female sports administrators come through the system. Certainly, the Elite Sport Male Champions of Change is putting accountability back onto male CEOs to do something – and they are. I was sceptical at first but I’ve seen results. My job is to make sure we approach [sexism] in a positive, proactive way and, if we’re calling people out, we don’t exacerbate the problem. It’s also to help change attitudes to women in society beyond sport.

How do you differ today from Kate Palmer 10 years ago on her first day in the role of Netball Australia’s CEO?

As part of my interview, I had to write a vision of what I thought netball could achieve and I wrote a press release for five years beyond my appointment. I revisited it five years later and we’d achieved all of that and more. The key has been working with great people – some of them are still with me – and having great leadership on the board. I think I’m still the same. I don’t sweat the small stuff much and I’m more resilient but I’m as ambitious as I’ve always been.