To help win her legal battles, Gina Rinehart has engaged many of the top commercial lawyers in Australia, and more than a few criminal ones, during her battle with Rose Porteous. To help her build Hancock Prospecting, Rinehart has hired many of the nation’s best geologists, engineering and mining executives. And yet Ferguson paints a picture of a revolving door of talented advisers and employees, most forced out after disagreeing with “The Chairman” as Rinehart likes to be called. One great question raised by Ferguson’s book is: Can one woman really run a mining empire with a potential value of $100 billion?
At various times during the short and unspectacular business careers of Gina Rinehart’s four children, the billionaire has seemed to want each of them to take their rightful place as her hardworking heir. Yet son John Hancock and daughters Bianca Rinehart and Hope Welker have left the business, with John complaining bitterly about a lack of respect from his mother. The departure of the children from the Hancock fold hasn’t stopped Rinehart whacking the kids during the current legal fight for having poor work ethics. Does Gina really want the kids in the business or are they too lazy and useless to make a meaningful contribution? The billionaire seems to want it both ways.
With the exception of her relationship with her mother and perhaps her daughter Ginia, who is siding with Gina in her fight against John, Bianca and Hope, Ferguson’s books suggests Gina has damaged almost every family relationship by fighting over money or control. Many of these spats are eventually settled – Rose and Gina eventually agreed to a deal, and Ferguson reveals Gina has tried to stop her children suing her by offering financial settlements – but Rinehart’s blind determination to go to any length to protect her fortune and Hancock Prospecting means the battles are long and bloody.
What makes Ferguson’s book important in understanding Rinehart’s winner-takes-all strategy is the details about Gina’s early years.
Here is a child brought up to believe that it was her birth right to own an empire beyond anything Australia has ever seen. It’s Gina’s core, unshakable belief. And she’ll do anything to protect it.
Adele Ferguson’s book Gina Rinehart: The untold story of the richest woman in the world is published by Pan Macmillan
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.
