Rinehart – with reasonable justification – paints Hancock as the godfather of the Pilbara and the man who helped turn Western Australia from a state that lived off the tax “handouts” of the rest of the country into an economic powerhouse.
“But he made money and he made people jealous. There was nothing stopping others from taking the risks, facing the many hardships and working hard like Dad did, but jealousy is easier, and jealousy leads to detractors, vitriol and hatred.”
(Not surprisingly, Rinehart omits that part of the reason Hancock was so heavily criticised was his extreme views on topics such as Aboriginal rights. This, after all, was the man who once suggested Aboriginals be made to collect their welfare cheques at one central location so that the water nearby could be poisoned “so that they were sterile and would breed themselves out in the future”.)
Rinehart sees herself being attacked as her father was.
“Today, sadly, jealousy of those who have worked hard to earn money continues. With it comes vitriol and hatred, with so little thought given to the fact that Australia really needs people to invest in and grow businesses that lead to opportunities for others, and help to pay for the spending of our governments.”
The way Rinehart believes Australia should “invest in and grow businesses that lead opportunities for others” is through the creation of a special economic zone in the north of Australia, where investment would be encouraged with relaxed labour, environmental and presumably native title laws.
“Our vision is to aim for policies to invigorate our sparsely populated north, with people, investment and businesses being made welcome; to become an essential contributor and engine for growth, revenue and opportunities,” Rinehart writes.
“When such polices of encouraging investment and businesses are better understood I Australia, I would hope they’d be extended south.”
The fact that Rinehart would surely be one of the biggest beneficiaries of such a zone does not rate a mention.
Interpreting what Rinehart really wants is not an easy task. While much of what she talks about is around Australia’s future, her heart could be seen as belonging to the past.
It’s a past where a simpler Australia, based on traditional values – living within your means, an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work, opportunity for those willing to take risks – celebrates the achievements of its great captains of industry.
It’s a past where the grand idea her father cooked up decades ago – that a great chunk of the nation could be set aside by a government and turned into a utopian free-market mining playground – hasn’t been discounted as the musings of an eccentric miner.
It’s a past that she must know is almost completely unobtainable. No government, state or federal, would support the idea of a hiving off one of the most valuable iron ore regions in the world.
Why someone with as much business acumen as Rinehart would cling to this fantasy is frankly hard to understand. But Rinehart doesn’t just cling to it – as this book demonstrates, it is at the core of her beliefs.
So to return to the question we started with: What might she be prepared to do to prosecute those beliefs?
In the introduction to Rinehart’s book, she acknowledges a slew of mostly small lobby groups and associations including the Small Business Association of Australia, The Sydney Mining Club, The Pastoralists and Graziers Association, The Mannkal Economic Education Foundation and the Institute of Public Affairs.
While Rinehart’s support for these groups brings to mind the support that the Koch brothers give to a myriad of small non-for-profit interest groups, their cumulative political clout is tiny, with the exception of the IPA.
But that doesn’t mean clout is out of Rinehart’s reach. Like the Republican billionaires of the US, she could pour money into conservative politics in a bid to influence the election result.
Would it get her any closer to her dream of a utopian north? It’s hard to see. Could it make Rinehart’s voice even stronger in Australian public life and spread her vision of a new, old Australia? Absolutely.
I doubt Rinehart would plough tens of millions of dollars into the Coalition’s coffers – her lack of faith in politicians would surely stay her hand.
But the possibility – and the potential consequences – are nothing if not fascinating.
James Thomson is a former editor of BRW’s Rich 200 and the publisher of SmartCompany and LeadingCompany.
James was the editor and publisher of SmartCompany and LeadingCompany for five years. He is now the Australian Financial Review‘s companies & markets editor, and a former BRW editor.
