By Stephen Brook and Kishor Napier-Raman
Australia’s richest person was, like most of the country, unhappy with the Liberal Party on Saturday night. But for different reasons to your average swinging voter.
Billionaire mining magnate Gina Rinehart lashed the Coalition following its electoral drubbing for being insufficiently Trumpian, accusing “left media” of frightening the Liberals away from following the lead of the US president.
Gina Rinehart has urged politicians to shift further to the right and adopt US President Donald Trump’s policies.
And while moderates bemoaned the perceived ties between Donald Trump and Peter Dutton which helped smash the party at the ballot box, a handful have echoed Rinehart’s sentiments. Chief among them was South Australian senator and anti-woke warrior Alex Antic, who told Sky News this week that it was time to “Make the Liberal Party Great again”.
Turns out that not only have the pair been singing from the same hymn book on the Liberal Party’s future, they’ve also been hanging out. According to an election-eve register-of-interests disclosure, Antic received dinner and hospitality from Rinehart and her Hancock Prospecting.
This is in sharp contrast to the beleaguered Victorian Liberals, who fell into (understandable) disfavour with Rinehart at the start of the election campaign. Victorian state president Phil Davis made a faux pas about Rinehart at a $10,000-a-head fundraiser dinner, referring to her sponsorship of Netball Australia, seemingly oblivious that the billionaire had cancelled the $15 million four-year sponsorship agreement after the Diamonds arced up about the mining money.
Liberal senator Alex Antic has had a “pretty strong run on the muesli this week”.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
No further details on Antic’s dinner antics, but given the timing, we assume the dining happened during the campaign period. Rinehart’s people declined to enlighten us further, but the senator did have something to say:
“I am glad you and the SMH are so interested in my eating habits,” he told CBD. “Would you like a complete rundown of what I ate this week? I have had a pretty strong run on the muesli this week.”
Food for thought.
What next?
After the deluge, what next for our triumvirate of major party leaders? Another Liberal who Rinehart developed a soft spot for was former opposition leader Peter Dutton. Now very recently unemployed, could a job at Hancock Prospecting beckon? Dutton kissed the ring plenty of times over the past three years, and the prospect isn’t exactly far-fetched given former Country Liberal Party leader and Northern Territory chief minister Adam Giles is an executive at Rinehart’s Hancock Agriculture.
Peter Dutton hanging loose in Ipswich, Queensland.Credit: James Brickwood
Dutton was a textbook former leader in Canberra this week, keeping silent on party matters and probably dreaming of wider horizons. But there’s still a bit of life admin to get through yet. As of late Thursday, the X account of the man formerly known as the opposition leader, silent since his Saturday voting post, still listed him as “@PeterDutton_MPLeader of the Liberal Party of Australia, Federal Member for Dickson. Authorised by Peter Dutton, Liberal Party of Australia, Brisbane”. Ditto Dutts’ Instagram.
Meanwhile, there is already a multitude of articles about the most important item in Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s second-term agenda – his wedding. Albo’s cooing towards fiancee Jodie Haydon during his election-night victory speech was forthright enough.
“Probably wasn’t expecting this to be in your life half a dozen years ago,” the prime minister said. “I am so grateful for your support, your friendship and your love. You make me so happy, which matters. You have my heart, I love you and I look forward to living our lives together.”
No doubt this was enough to activate the crack Australian Women’s Weekly nuptials reporting unit as it gets ready for the women’s magazine equivalent of a federal election/grand final – a history-making wedding.
Outgoing Greens leader Adam Bandt in the DJ seat at a fundraiser in Brisbane last month.Credit: Dan Peled
What of Adam Bandt, the ex-Greens leader who finally on Thursday conceded defeat to Labor in the electorate of Melbourne, the seat he first won in 2010. Before entering parliament, Bandt was an industrial lawyer at Labor-linked firm Slater & Gordon (past alums include Julia Gillard) and also a barrister. Clients included mineworkers in the La Trobe Valley, who gave him a picture of a coal-fired power station which rather ironically adorned the Greens leader’s Fitzroy electorate office wall.
We can think of one embattled union out of favour with the ALP which could use a little future legal help. More recently, Bandt has been doing a spot of DJ-ing, which is an entirely suitable hustle for an unemployed Fitzroy man.
The Greens are set to pick Bandt’s replacement at a party room meeting next week. Unlike Labor and the Libs, who are ruled by a majority vote, the Greens will keep yacking until a consensus is reached, so expect that to last about as long as the papal conclave.
Bandt’s 2010 manifesto included a policy to create a $4.2 billion Denticare scheme to provide universal basic dental care. And this election he was still battling to extend Medicare to dental. As the French are fond of saying, plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose (the more things change, the more they stay the same).
Dutton once joked about getting an invite to the PM’s big day during a moment of levity amid the political grind. Perhaps a common future beckons, which sees each leader play to their strengths.
Maybe the law and order conscious Queenslander could run the security team for Albo and Haydon’s reception, while Bandt hits the decks as the house DJ.
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