Given Singleton’s vehement opposition to the carbon tax – he considers it “a load of shit” – and his shared mistrust of what he calls the “born-to-rule media”, it has been reported that Rinehart bought into Fairfax partly to assist his efforts to buy the company’s influential talkback stations in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. But Singleton says that’s laughable. “Fantasy-land, mate,” he tells me. “Fantasy-land. Gina isn’t going to buy me a radio station for Christmas.” Though he recently told Good Weekend magazine that he and Rinehart “have been able to overtly and covertly attack governments”, he says the notion that they are part of some right-wing conspiracy is ridiculous. He has not spoken to her for more than a year, and the only time they have had a detailed discussion about media ownership came when he was trying to buy eight regional radio stations in Queensland that broadcast in mining towns. Ian Plimer also thinks that her media ambitions are being exaggerated. “I don’t think there are any plans for a Fox News,” he tells me. “In the business proposals that I see the comment is always ‘stick to your knitting’.” Which, in Rinehart’s case, means mining.

Yet no one I spoke to thought Rinehart would readily give up her drive for influence and acknowledgement. Last June, in a faint echo of the ‘Hancock Benefit Tours’, Rinehart flew on a private jet to attend the Bollywood-style $20 million wedding celebrations for the granddaughter of GV Krishna Reddy, the Indian industrialist who acquired her coal mines in Queensland three months later. Accompanying her were the Liberal Deputy Leader, Julie Bishop, Liberal MP Teresa Gambaro and Senator Barnaby Joyce. (The resources minister, Martin Ferguson, had turned down her invitation.)

Persistence is the word that best summed up Lang Hancock, according to his friend Ron Manners, and it is also true of his daughter. “She’ll fight the umpire [to win],” a business associate tells me. “She’ll fight her fellow players, she’ll fight the crowd.”

http://www.themonthly.com.au/gina-rinehart-s-quest-respect-and-gratitude-what-gina-wants-nick-bryant-5024

Gina Rinehart has declared herself a small businesswoman at the launch of her new book, Northern Australia and Then Some: Changes We Need to Make to Make Our Country Rich.

Most small businesses may not have felt they have much in common with Australia’s richest person, whose wealth is estimated at $20 billion, but Rinehart assured small businesses that she was really one of them in a whirlwind tour of Australia on Thursday.

The mining magnate distanced herself from multinational miners who, she said, were better able to deal with the regulation that surrounds the mining industry. ”BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto have floors of people working on these approvals [but] it is really hard for small and medium business,” she said at the launch.

http://www.crikey.com.au/2012/11/27/rineharts-lessons-for-small-business-earn-more-beware-eu/

 

Australian miners are set to cash in on the resurgent iron ore price, with new statistics showing that a record volume of the commodity was exported out of Port Hedland in December.
The vast majority of Australian iron ore sold abroad exits the country at Port Hedland in Western Australia, and the authority in charge of the port revealed today that 25.995 million tonnes of iron ore was exported during the 31 days of December 2012.
That figure easily beat the previous monthly export record of 22.8 million tonnes, which was set in August 2012, and is 22 per cent higher than volume exported in December 2011.
The rising tide of exports has coincided with a resurgence in the benchmark iron ore price since its well-publicised slump in September 2012.

The benchmark price was today fetching $US144.90 per tonne, close to 70 per cent higher than the $US87 it was fetching in September.
The stronger price has helped Australia's iron ore miners repair their share prices in recent months, with Fortescue Metals Group today hitting its highest price since May 15, 2012.
Fortescue shares were fetching $5.07.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/mining-and-resources/miners-to-reap-reward-from-iron-ore-jump-20130103-2c6s9.html#ixzz2GuykI6ks
See toon at top...

 

 

‘‘Australians have to work hard or actually harder and smarter to create the revenue to be able to pay that bill ... something has to give, we can’t do it all.’’

Mr Latham told the Seven Network on Friday that Ms Rinehart ‘‘wants to be a bigger welfare recipient herself’’.

‘‘She’s against social welfare but she’s very much in favour of business welfare for herself.

‘‘I think that’s an appalling double standard, there is no bottomless pit of money and that should apply to Gina as much as the people she’s bagging today.’’

Ms Rinehart also praised former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher in the column, titled ‘‘The Age of Entitlement - has Consequences’’, urging Australian politicians to follow her example.

‘‘Europe and the free world sadly lost a courageous leader last year, Baroness Thatcher,’’ Ms Rinehart wrote.

‘‘Our political leaders are fortunate to have a leader they can emulate, a leader who well understood fundamental economic matters, critical for all countries and their standards of living.

‘‘What Thatcher did for Britain our own leaders should do for us - cut spending, cut waste, cut the shackles and back hard work.’’

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/mark-latham-returns-fire-at-gina-rineharts-living-beyond-our-means-comment-20140307-34ar9.html#ixzz2vFUT11rL
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Business welfare has many hidden facets, especially for suppliers of energy or dirt exporters... I did not like Thatcher at the time and I still do not like her policies one iota... Most Aussies I know work their butt off. often the harder they work, the more management is going to exploit them, especially those lazy middle managers who more often than not will claim credit for achievements that is not theirs and the ruthless top echelons who think counting cash by candle-light is work, while others toil in the salt mines...
Despite being a bit all over the place, in terms of socio-economic worth and values, Latham is way ahead of the self-possessed Gina and her whipping iron lady. He wrote a book on this subject called "Civilising Global Capital"... way before the GFC, knowing things could hit the fan...