Senior federal minister Bill Shorten has been called into the simmering stand-off between Netball Australia and the players’ union

CODE Sports has confirmed that the prominent trade union official-turned-politician, now Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme and Government Services, has been part of at least two meetings between Netball Australia and the Australian Netball Players’ Association in the past week, plus other discussions earlier in the year.

As negotiations over a new Collective Player Agreement drag into a ninth month, all Super Netball contracts expired on September 30, meaning that non-Diamonds and FAST5 athletes have not been paid for more than six weeks.

Formal mediation is yet to begin, and an official mediator is still to be appointed despite ANPA putting forward a Victorian Supreme Court judge who had offered to handle the process free of charge for the financially-challenged sport. The alternative – preferred by NA – would apparently cost $30,000.

SSN players are seeking a slice of above-forecast revenue rather than profit-share preferred by NA and the clubs, and there are also a suite of more minor issues still to be resolved. Until they are, the contracting process is on hold and pre-season training impacted, despite agreements having been made to fill almost all the 80 roster spots.

Shorten was secretary of the Australian Workers Union back in 2005 when the 120 players in the former 10-team national league joined the AWU in a bid to boost what were then meagre annual wages of $4000 –$5000.

Having been elected to the House of Representatives in 2007, the Member for the Melbourne seat of Maribyrnong has maintained an ongoing relationship with the sport, and this year quietly been playing an advisory and support role for ANPA as the parties continue struggling to get a deal done.

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Netball Australia declined to comment on Shorten’s involvement, having said the previous day only that it and ANPA are “continuing pre-mediation discussions to progress the Collective Player Agreement’’.

ANPA representatives could not be contacted.

A list of questions was provided to Shorten’s office, seeking clarity on his role and motivation, confidence or otherwise in finding a solution to the stalemate and whether progress was being made, but no response had been received at the time of publication.