By Kishor Napier-Raman and Stephen Brook
Has Australia’s richest person added another feather to her iron ore cap?
The few hundred punters watching Sky News’ coverage of the Murdoch media empire’s Hancock Prospecting-sponsored Australian Bush Summit in Port Hedland last week would’ve noticed the billionaire mining magnate described as Dr Gina Rinehart, AO.
Rinehart’s title invoked a typically smug raised eyebrow from departing Media Watch host Paul Barry on Monday night, but left this column wondering whether the Sydney University economics dropout had acquired new academic credentials.
Now, if Gina had completed a PhD thesis, we’d know. Her website details all her various gongs, down to her recent lifetime achievement award from the Ayn Rand Atlas Society. But Rinehart has one of those honorary doctorates, from Bond University, awarded in 2013 for her “commitment and contribution to the Australian economy and wider community”.
It’s generally considered poor form to call oneself a doctor based on an honorary degree, and there’s good reason why nobody ever called the late, great Shane Warne (granted an honorary doctorate for services to cricket from Southampton Solent University in 2006) Dr Warnie. Even if the Gatting Ball was its own thesis defence. But Bond’s policy on such matters doesn’t say Rinehart can’t call herself doctor.
Is there a doctor in the house?Credit: Hancock Prospecting
So was the title a new preference from Hancock HQ, much like the deferential way Olympic swimmers only ever refer to their patron as “Mrs Rinehart” when thanking her for the cameras?
Not quite, a spokesperson for Hancock Prospecting told us, while confirming it was a reference to the gong from Bond.
“She personally doesn’t use the title ‘doctor’, but others do refer to this honour,” they said.
We note there is one West Australian billionaire miner with a real doctorate. That would be Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest, who completed his PhD in marine science from the University of Western Australia in 2019.
There’s little love between the two Perthonalities, with Rinehart unimpressed by Twiggy’s woke embrace of green hydrogen. And given their proxy war over the Australiana apparel market documented in this column, we wouldn’t be surprised if Gina went back to school to get what Twiggy has.
DUTTON BACKFLIP ON TIKTOK
It wasn’t all that long ago banning TikTok was one of the many examples of Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s tough cop act. Back in March, after the US House of Representatives passed a bill that could pave the way for a ban of the app unless it divests from its Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance within a year, Dutton called on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to do the same because will someone please think of the children?
“At a time like this the prime minister doesn’t need to be weak, he needs to be strong to show the leadership needed to keep Australian children safe online,” Dutton thundered.
Peter Dutton only has two followers on TikTok.
But six months, it seems, is an aeon in politics. On Wednesday, we noticed the opposition leader had launched his very own TikTok account, albeit one without any videos … yet. And they said brat summer was over.
So what made Dutts change his mind on TikTok? Was it the need to improve his image among the youth before next year’s election? Or another consequence of his steadily softening rhetoric on China?
Whatever it was, his office didn’t tell us. But we can’t wait for the content.
IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PITTWATER
Mandeep “Sunny” Singh’s mistake actually turned out well for a northern beaches cafe owner.
Singh, a Liberal Party member hoping to run for Northern Beaches Council, filed his own paperwork with the NSW Electoral Commission, thinking it was his responsibility. When his party failed to do so in that local government area (and several others around NSW), Sunny was left fighting alone for the Liberals on the beaches.
As the only Liberal running, you’d think Sunny might have a good shot. Then locals started receiving his campaign literature in their letterboxes. Those leaflets featured a glowing endorsement from former Pittwater Liberal MP Rory Amon, who quit parliament on Friday after being charged with alleged child sex offences. Amon denies the charges.
That material was no doubt printed before the charges were revealed, but their presence hasn’t helped the Liberal cause that much.
A decade ago, a Liberal prime minister and state premier both represented seats on the insular peninsula. Now, Manly MP James Griffin is the last Liberal standing in the region, and in a fiery letter to local party members, he urged troops to toughen up a bit.
“There are some people who say we should just wait for the cost-of-living crisis to bite, for Minns and his unimaginative ministers to implode or sit back and wait for things to turn around,” he wrote.
“I think that is a small-minded way for our great party to behave. Waiting around means more defeat.”
Defeat being something Liberals north of the bridge now know all too well.
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