Rising levels of anger in the mining industry towards the Albanese government combined with Peter Dutton’s claim he is the miners’ best friend opens the way for billionaire Gina Rinehart to close the loop on her father Lang Hancock’s tax crusade.

Hancock, who found the first iron ore resources in the Pilbara in 1950, spent the 1970s and ’80s calling for a tax-free development zone north of the 26th parallel, a line that runs across the country including the border of South Australia and the Northern Territory and Queensland.