Australia’s richest person Gina Rinehart believes the nation should “watch and learn” from the policy agenda of US President-elect Donald Trump, as the mining magnate continues her crusade against government red tape and taxes.
The head of Hancock Prospecting, who attended Trump’s election watch party at Mar-a-Lago, lauded his victory over US Vice President Kamala Harris as “the greatest comeback” since Democratic nominee Grover Cleveland defeated Republican incumbent Benjamin Harrison in 1892.
Gina Rinehart at Mar-a-Lago on Wednesday.
In a statement to this masthead, Rinehart declared Trump’s election a “repudiation of all things left” and said she believed the 78-year-old’s planned cuts to government red tape and tax would provide lessons for those back home.
“Even after a billion-dollar spend by the Democrats, the USA has chosen, with full throttle, repudiation of all things left. Socialism always hurts those less well off the most,” she said.
“He stood armed with conviction, huge courage, incredible untiring effort, and a real love of the USA and the American people.
“I do hope Australia watches [Trump] and learns as they see that cutting government [red] tape, cutting taxes, and cutting government wastage lifts people up, and lifts living standards.”
Rinehart with former Liberal Party vice president Teena McQueen (left), and Nigel Farage, the leader of the conservative UK Reform party, at Trump’s election watch party.
Rinehart, a vocal Trump supporter, said she believed his presidency would bring more prosperity to the United States and that his pledge to “fix the border nightmare” would make Americans safer.
She has also sought to downplay the impact of his plans to impose heavy tariffs of up to 20 per cent on imports, something she has previously opposed and which economists believe will leave Australia worse off.
Her comments come after analysts warned Trump’s policy plans could stoke inflation, prompting higher interest rates and curbing economic activity in Australia – which could mean the nation’s economy takes a $36 billion hit.
The chair of mining empire Hancock Prospecting, estimated to be worth $46 billion, has long rallied against government red tape and taxes, which she says stymies investment and compromises living standards.
Several of the billionaire’s lucrative iron ore projects in Western Australia’s Pilbara region have encountered approval delays, prompting her to join other miners in lobbying against tighter regulation in the form of the federal government’s stalled environment reforms.
Last month, Rinehart used her flagship company Roy Hill’s bumper profit news to warn government tape could stifle the continuation of its namesake iron ore operation, which poured $655 million into WA’s coffers last financial year.
For more than a decade, she has been calling on the federal government to implement special economic zones with less burdensome regulations and tax cuts, as have been introduced in China.
Rinehart isn’t the only WA mining magnate to have welcomed the 47th president’s radical policy plan.
On Wednesday, Fortescue chairman Andrew Forrest told investors Trump was an “economic pragmatist” who he believed would keep the “engine rolling” on the transition to renewable energy.
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