By Mike Foley
A battle of billionaire boot makers is stomping its mark onto the coming federal election as Gina Rinehart’s Rossi brand begins appearing on the feet of politicians once loyal to rural outfitter RM Williams, which has been revitalised by Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest.
The West Australian iron ore magnates’ footwear rivalry is playing out as a proxy for the climate war that has erupted between the Albanese government and Peter Dutton’s opposition, but choosing a boot is not as simple as broadcasting their environmental preferences for MPs.
The battle of the boot.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen, Getty Images, AAP, Twitter, Supplied
Forrest is a major investor in the shift to renewable energy, and his RM Williams boots are made in Australia. But the classic Craftsman model is expensive, starting at $649 and running up to $4999 for a deluxe crocodile-skin model.
Rinehart owns a major Queensland coal mine and is a prominent backer of Dutton’s push to slow the renewables rollout and build nuclear power. Her Rossi boots are much cheaper than RMs, though, with the dressy Colt range costing $399, but they are no longer made in Australia.
Dutton has been periodically spotted in Rossi boots, while Prime Minister Anthony Albanese often sports his RM Williams.
Many of the Nationals, who can usually be identified in a parliamentary lineup by their boots and broad-brimmed hats, are in the middle. Several, including Hinkler MP Keith Pitt and the deputy party leader, NSW senator Perin Davey, said they wear both brands. Nicholls MP Sam Birrell wears RM Williams and Blundstones.
Barnaby Joyce, a former Nationals leader, is wearing neither.
An outspoken advocate of the “don’t tread on me” movement opposing renewable projects on farmland, Joyce is boycotting the Forrest-owned boots because of his role in what Joyce claims are “wind factories” decimating agriculture in his northern NSW electorate.
“I thought, I’m arguing with Andrew [Forrest], but I’m walking around with his shoes on,” said Joyce, who served as deputy prime minister in two stints between 2016 and 2022. “It doesn’t make sense.”
So, Joyce said, he went to a stall from American cowboy boot maker Ariat at the Beef Week event in Rockhampton last year, and bought himself a pair.
“I know they’re American, and as soon as I see something, to be quite frank, as flash in an Australian make, I’ll buy them,” Joyce said. “But you know, I wear these things from the cattle yards to funerals and people might laugh at them in Sydney, but they don’t laugh in Tamworth, the country music capital.”
Joyce is far from the only politician to use fashion to send a message. The late US secretary of state Madeleine Albright used jewelled brooches to signal her toughness in international negotiations, wearing a snake pin to handle negotiations over Iraq after the country’s leaders called her one in public. When then-deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop resigned in 2018 she did so in satin red heels, drawing a contrast with the dark suits and shoes of the gaggle of male journalists around her.
Liberal MP Julie Bishop wore red satin heels to announce her resignation in 2018, contrasting with male journalists’ dark boots.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Michael McCormack, who lost the Nationals’ leadership to Joyce in 2021, said he did not always agree with Forrest but supported his investment in RM Williams and loved the boots.
“RMs are a boot you can wear socially, you can wear in a dry creek bed, you can wear them out in the electorate and you can polish them up, as I do every day, and you don’t look out of turn,” McCormack said. “I’ve convinced any number of male and female colleagues on both sides of the political spectrum to get a pair of RMs.”
Forrest and his wife Nicola, who he is now separated from, returned RM Williams to Australian ownership in 2020 when their Tattarang venture bought the company, founded in South Australia in 1932, from a private equity fund backed by global fashion brand Louis Vuitton. Three years later, the Forrests added hatmaker Akubra to their stable.
Not to be outdone, Rinehart bought Rossi in 2023 along with raincoat company Driza-bone. Rossi, which shifted production from Adelaide to Asia under its previous owners due to cost pressures, gained national attention last year when Rinehart, a major sport sponsor, gave every athlete on the Australian team at the Paris Olympics a pair of golden boots.
A Rossi spokesperson said Rinehart plans to grow the Rossi range and local content in its products, including leather from its cattle properties. RM Williams declined to comment, but has doubled production space and created 350 Australian jobs under Tattarang’s ownership.
This masthead’s fashion editor, Damien Woolnough, said Forrest and Rinehart had acquired brands that conjured different images for Australians.
“Both of Forrest’s brands are iconic, straddle most walks of life in Australia and I think most people have an emotional connection to either RMs or Akubra,” Woolnough said.
“Rossi has more of a working-class association, but it can be seen as a positioning statement, perhaps trying to create a bit of rivalry between the top end of town and regional Australia.”
Woolnough said it was surprising to see politicians making fashion statements. “So many have been torn apart for their fashion choices,” he said, recalling Paul Keating’s expensive Zegna suits and John Howard’s colourful exercise tracksuits. “So having people willing to use fashion as a positioning for their beliefs, in terms of boots and wind farms, is highly unusual.”
Labor MP Steve Georganas, who represents the Adelaide electorate where Rossi formerly made boots and RM Williams still does, said he owns one pair of each brand but wears his aged Rossis in parliament.
“I really wanted to promote Rossi when they were manufacturing here in Australia,” Georganas said. “It’s a great reminder of the manufacturing that we can do in Australia if we support Australian goods.”
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