Gina Rinehart legal bid to spare Barnaby Joyce over subpoena
AUSTRALIA’S richest woman is fighting in Sydney’s Supreme Court to stop former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce having to comply with a subpoena demanding documents related to how her family company money is being spent.
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HE complains of drones over his house, now former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce will need to be on the lookout for process servers seeking information about his long-term friend Gina Rinehart.
Australia’s richest woman is fighting in the Supreme Court in Sydney to stop the former deputy prime minister having to comply with a subpoena demanding documents related to how her family company money is being spent.
Mrs Rinehart’s daughter Bianca wants to serve the subpoena “as soon as possible” as part of her legal battle for access to the books of the family’s iron ore mining firm Hancock Prospecting (HPPL), her barrister Dr Andrew Bell SC told the court yesterday.
Mrs Rinehart’s barrister Steven Finch SC said Mr Joyce’s subpoena would be opposed, saying: “We just don’t want Mr Joyce to be pursued.” Mrs Rinehart gave Mr Joyce a $40,000 cheque last November for being a champion of agriculture. He initially accepted the cheque with the words “hooley dooley”, before handing it back in the face of a public outcry.
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Documents released under freedom of information reveal Mrs Rinehart lobbied Mr Joyce to support national farm day and he secured a $60,500 government grant as then agriculture minister for the National Farmers’ Federation to support the day’s events.
Mrs Rinehart’s HPPL was refused government money to support the national farm day gala dinner, at which she gave Mr Joyce the prize.
Mr Joyce has since resigned his ministerial positions after his relationship with former staffer Vikki Campion was revealed in The Daily Telegraph.
In her court action Bianca is also seeking details of some $81 million HPPL donated to various causes and political parties in just the year to June 2015, an affidavit filed by her lawyer Timothy Price reveals.
Mrs Rinehart, estimated by Forbes magazine to be worth $24 billion, is chair of HPPL. Bianca is trustee of a $4 billion family trust, the Hope Margaret Hancock Trust, which owns almost 25 per cent of HPPL, and initiated the legal proceeding over corporate governance and distribution of assets at HPPL. The case resumes in July.