"The Billionaires’ Salvage Yard: How This White Supremacist Neoliberal Government Lets Mowbray and Williams Strip Netball for Parts" - 14 August 2026
I’m Ivor Jones, The Māori Green Lantern, and I’m watching a white supremacist neoliberal government deliberately crash our wāhine’s netball waka, then invite billionaires to drag it into their salvage yard and sell it back to us as “rescue”.
Who I Am and Why I’m Swinging the Taiaha
Kia ora, I’m Ivor Jones — Te Arawa, Ngāti Pikiao, Welsh whakapapa — the author and agitator behind The Māori Green Lantern.
My mahi is simple: expose white supremacy, neoliberal asset‑stripping, and Crown hypocrisy, with taiaha raised and receipts in hand. When I look at what’s happening to netball, I don’t see “innovation” or “sustainability”.
I see a government that treats Māori, Pacific and working‑class wāhine as disposable labour, a governing body collapsing under its own incompetence, and a billionaire family rolling in to take the league off our hands.
How Netball Was Deliberately Crashed
Netball NZ mishandled the Dame Noeline Taurua saga so badly that it triggered mediation, fierce criticism, and public scrutiny, as covered by 1News and NZ Herald. Outgoing chair Matt Whineray admitted “regret” for their handling of Taurua — that’s a confession, not just a footnote.
At the same time, Netball NZ failed to secure a stable broadcast deal for the ANZ Premiership, with RNZ warning that top netballers might need secondary jobs to survive.
By mid‑2026, chair Alastair Carruthers is on TVNZ’s Breakfast saying the ANZ Premiership has racked up about $3.7m in losses and Netball NZ’s total deficit is “close to $6m”, as reported by 1News and TVNZ’s social posts.
To keep the season alive, ANZ Premiership players — overwhelmingly Māori and Pacific wāhine — accept a 20% pay cut, dropping their retainers to $20,800–$44,800, while top Super Netball players across the Tasman earn about NZ$120,000, as detailed by RNZ.
So in plain language:
- The board set the coaching house on fire.
- The government starved the surrounding public infrastructure.
- The players took the financial beating.
And then Netball NZ started talking about “privatisation” as a solution, in bland statements to 1News.
The Deep Dive Podcast (Kōrero for the Western Mind)
The sources are the same RNZ, 1News, E‑Tangata and Perfect Union pieces cited here, plus my own kaupapa content already circulating through Māori media and social feeds. Yes, the AI pronunciation of reo will be rough. Don’t shoot the messenger — treat it as a tool, not your reo teacher.
YouTube Video
That video sits alongside netball and political kaupapa clips already shared under The Māori Green Lantern banner, including derby highlights and Waitangi commentary across Instagram and Facebook.
Koha Consideration
Every koha on this kaupapa tells this white supremacist neoliberal government and its billionaire mates that whānau are ready to support the accountability they run from.
It signals that rangatiratanga includes the power to support our own truth‑tellers — to back voices like The Māori Green Lantern when we stand between your daughters’ game and the wrecking crew.
Kia kaha, whānau. Stay vigilant. Stay connected. And if you are able, consider a koha so this voice can keep calling out every attempt to sell our wāhine’s netball taonga to the highest bidder.
If you are unable to koha, kei te pai — subscribe or follow The Māori Green Lantern at themaorigreenlantern.maori.nz, kōrero and share with your whānau and friends. That is koha in itself.
Four pathways exist:
Koha — Support: Support this mahi directly via the koha platform: https://app.koha.kiwi/events/the-maori-green-lantern-fighting-misinformation-and-disinformation-ivor-jones.
Subscribe: Receive essays and support via subscription: https://www.themaorigreenlantern.maori.nz/#/portal/support.
Direct bank transfer: For direct support: Ivor Jones, account 03‑1395‑0099387‑000.
Facebook: Follow and support via: https://www.facebook.com/Themaorigreenlantern/subscribe/.
The Inside Job: Netball NZ’s Privatisation Blueprint
Netball NZ did not suddenly “consider” private ownership because times got tough. It commissioned the privatisation playbook itself.
RNZ’s reporting, echoed by The Post and NZ Herald, lays it out:
- Former CEO Jennie Wyllie’s management team commissioned a project led by Anthony Crummy, a cricket/hockey administrator, to redesign league structures, ownership, and licensing.
- Australian sports executive Shane Mattiske — ex‑NRL chief, specialising in commercialisation and media rights — sharpened that work.
- The preferred model was to sell the licence to run the league, handing commercial and operational control to private investors.
That’s not “exploring options”. That’s Netball NZ building a pipeline to flog off its premier domestic competition.
And it fits perfectly into what this white supremacist neoliberal government is doing to the rest of our public assets: stripping legal protections against asset sales and weakening co‑governance, as warned in E‑Tangata’s The Crown can’t decide on its own and We won’t let progress slip without a fight.
Who’s Driving the Wrecking Truck: Mowbray and Williams
Anna Mowbray – Billionaire Family, “Significant Cash Out”
RNZ and the NZ Herald Rich List profile Mat and Nick Mowbray as New Zealand’s richest siblings, with combined wealth of about $20b off the back of Zuru.
Anna, their sister, co‑founded Zuru and later left the company after what she described as a “significant cash out”, before founding Zeil and joining Auckland FC’s ownership group, as RNZ has reported.
Ali Williams – All Black, Cocaine Conviction
Ali Williams is a 77‑test All Black, but that’s not the whole story. In 2017 he was arrested outside a Paris nightclub for buying cocaine, spent the night in a cell, and was fined €1,500 by a French court. Racing 92 terminated his contract. This is documented by RNZ, BBC and Sky Sports.
RNZ later reported that French rugby authorities fined him again and ordered him into a drug programme.
Together – Local Face of a Billionaire Portfolio
Together, Mowbray and Williams are local co‑owners in Auckland FC under majority owner Bill Foley, whose sports portfolio spans clubs and leagues across regions, as laid out on Auckland FC’s partnerships page. Ownership updates add former All Whites while confirming Foley’s majority control.
Now the same pair are leading a bid to take over netball’s elite league licence and fast‑track a privately‑owned competition, as revealed by RNZ’s Checkpoint, 1News and NZ Herald.
Insiders told RNZ that the 2027 version would be a “beta” competition resembling the status quo, with a more “bombastic” full league in 2028.
This is not aroha. This is asset acquisition.
Three Examples for the Western Mind: How This Pattern Works
You want proof and numbers? Kei konei.
1. Oakland A’s – US$400m to Move a Team
In Oakland, billionaire John Fisher is moving the A’s to Las Vegas with nearly US$400m in public money, extracted from local budgets, as More Perfect Union details in The Billionaire Sports Team Owners Taking Their Ball and Going Home
Quantified harm:
US$400,000,000 that could fund housing, schools, or healthcare is poured into a stadium subsidy package to boost one man’s franchise value.
Impact on tikanga:
From tikanga Māori, this destroys manaakitanga and kaitiakitanga: the community is stripped to feed a billionaire’s toy. The team is treated as a commodity, not a taonga. That is exactly how this government’s fast‑track approvals and asset‑sale thinking operate.
Solution:
- Ban or strictly condition public subsidies for private sports owners.
- In netball: refuse any “lifeline” that hands control to wealthy investors without binding protections for players and communities.
On The Māori Green Lantern, I’ve already explored how billionaire behaviour intersects with New Zealand politics in essays like “THE BILLIONAIRE’S CRYING BODYGUARD” and other pieces across my archive, naming how wealth, politics and media complicity operate here.
2. The NFL – US$11b Revenue, 30 Billionaires, Broken Brains
More Perfect Union’s Playing with Players’ Lives shows the NFL makes about US$11b a year, split across 32 teams, with 30 of 32 owners being billionaires.https://perfectunion.us/playing-with-players-lives-how-the-nfl-hid-a-crisis-killing-athletes/
Those owners knowingly downplayed concussion science, leaving players with chronic brain injuries, as described in that piece and follow‑ups like The NFL Is Choosing Concerts Over Player Safety.
Quantified harm:
- Hundreds of players with permanent neurological damage.
- Billions in profit protected by sacrificing bodies.
Impact on tikanga:
Under tikanga, damaging the bodies and minds of people you have responsibility for is an assault on tapu and mana. NFL owners treated players as expendable meat. This government does the same with Māori communities when it strips health, housing and environmental protections under “efficiency”.
Solution:
- Power‑sharing that gives players genuine control over safety decisions.
- Hard limits on owner power where it intersects with hauora.
On The Māori Green Lantern, I’ve drawn this parallel in my analysis of the government’s attacks on Te Tiriti and public services, such as essays referenced in posts like this, which call out colonial hypocrisy and pseudo‑“cost savings”.
3. Spectrum, Power, and Netball – Continuous Asset Theft
E‑Tangata’s The spectrum — the battle to reclaim a taonga shows how radio spectrum, a modern taonga, was auctioned off to corporations without Māori at the table, forcing us to fight for even a 20% share via a Māori Spectrum Entity.h
The Crown can’t decide on its own warns that removing protections around asset sales opens the door for governments to privatise state assets and services against Māori and public interests.
We already see gradual privatisation of power, with companies making mega‑profits while whānau struggle to pay the bills — a theme I’ve tackled in my own content about energy, asset sales and structural racism on The Māori Green Lantern.
Quantified harm:
- Spectrum wealth captured by corporates.
- Billions in state assets open for sale.
- Power profits climbing while households strain.
Impact on tikanga (plain):
Taonga are meant to be held collectively, with whakapapa obligations front and centre. Every time we privatise spectrum, power, or now netball, we rip those obligations away and hand them to shareholders whose only whakapapa is to profit. That’s white supremacist neoliberalism in action.
Solution:
- Treaty‑consistent, Māori‑led entities with real control (like the Māori Spectrum Entity model).
- For netball: Māori and Pacific player governance seats, veto powers over privatisation, and refusal to sell the league while it is bleeding from the board’s mistakes.
The Wealth Gap That Makes This a Mugging, Not a Partnership
Now, put the numbers together.
- Mat and Nick Mowbray’s combined wealth footing: about $20b.
- ANZ Premiership retainers after a 20% cut: $20,800–$44,800.
Top retainer of $44,800 is 0.000224% of $20b. A mid retainer of $30,000 is 0.00015%.
That’s not “partnering with investment”. That’s billionaires acquiring a league whose workforce earns fractions of a fraction of their wealth.
Netball NZ has already built the licence‑sale pipeline. This government is busy removing protections that stop future governments from selling state assets and eroding co‑governance. Mowbray and Williams arrive with NDAs, Auckland FC portfolio logic, and a fast‑track plan.
This is not a rescue. It’s a mugging.
Impact on Wāhine Māori and Pacific Players
Māori and Pacific women already earn 23–27% less than Pākehā men.
Now layer on:
- A 20% pay cut to $20,800–$44,800 netball retainers.
- RNZ warnings that top netballers may need second jobs just to “make ends meet”.
- The possibility that the ANZ Premiership is mothballed unless private owners step in, openly discussed in 1News.
Tikanga says wāhine, their hauora, and their mana come first. This government and this model say their bodies and time are fair game for asset‑stripping.
This government and billionaires suck ass. Let us be rid of them in November 2026.
Ngā mihi,
Ivor Jones The Māori Green Lantern Fighting Misinformation And Disinformation From The Far Right
Disclaimer
This essay is a work of opinion journalism and political commentary published by The Māori Green Lantern (Ivor Jones), grounded in publicly available reporting from named sources including RNZ, 1News, NZ Herald, The Post, BBC, Sky Sports, E-Tangata, and More Perfect Union. All factual claims — including financial figures, quotes, dates, and legal outcomes — are drawn directly from these cited sources and are believed accurate as of the date of publication (14 August 2026). Where figures are calculated (e.g. percentage comparisons), the underlying formula and source data are disclosed inline.
Statements characterising Netball New Zealand's governance decisions, the privatisation proposal, and the conduct of Anna Mowbray and Ali Williams reflect the author's opinion and analysis of matters of significant public interest — namely, the potential transfer of a national sporting body to private ownership and its impact on athlete welfare and pay equity. Opinions are clearly distinguished from verified facts throughout and are offered in good faith, without malice, based on a pattern of publicly reported conduct rather than any allegation of unlawful behaviour beyond Ali Williams' 2017 French drug conviction, which is a matter of public record.
No claim is made that Anna Mowbray, Ali Williams, Netball New Zealand, or any named individual or organisation has acted unlawfully in relation to the netball privatisation proposal itself. The characterisation of government policy as "white supremacist" and "neoliberal" reflects the author's political analysis and critique of structural patterns, not a factual assertion about the personal views of any named individual.
Ali Williams did not respond to RNZ's request for comment on the netball proposal at time of original reporting. Should Anna Mowbray, Ali Williams, Netball New Zealand, the NZNPA, or any other named party wish to respond or correct the record, this essay will be updated within 48 hours of contact via themaorigreenlantern.maori.nz, consistent with this publication's right-of-reply policy.
This essay does not constitute financial, legal, or investment advice. Readers are encouraged to consult the original sources linked throughout for full context.
