Gina Rinehart christens bulk carrier; Simon Holmes a Court teams up with Ross Garnaut

Gina Rinehart and dignitaries at the christening of the bulk carrier, the MV Gina Oldendorff.

With so many years dominating Australia’s rich list, and the capacity to buy virtually anything she desires, is there an earthly possession still remaining that can bring joy to the face of Gina Rinehart?

The unlikely answer involves an enormous bulk carrier constructed by German shipping company Oldendorff, which named its ship after the mining magnate at a christening ceremony in Japan last month.

The MV Gina Oldendorff will ship iron ore out of Port Hedland.

Painted the colour of “Pilbara red”, the 180,000 deadweight tonnage vessel will henceforth be known as the MV Gina Oldendorff, and it clearly worked a charm on the billionaire.

In attendance at Namura Shipyard was a positively beaming Rinehart alongside Oldendorff chairman Henning Oldendorff and Rinehart’s longstanding ally Tad Watroba, an executive director at Hancock Prospecting and a point-man who’s overseen the company’s mining operations for more than 20 years.

Judging by photos released by the company, it would appear Rinehart braced herself against the Japanese winter with a full-length fur coat, black gloves and, impressively, what appear to be Ugg boots. That’s certainly one way to represent your country!

There was a regal wave to onlookers, balloons and streamers, and then Rinehart sacrificed a bottle of bubbles against her oceanic namesake after proclaiming: “I name you Gina Oldendorff, may God bless you and all people who sail on you. May success be always with you, safe travels and many happy returns.”

The ship’s destiny will see it move iron ore out of Port Hedland from Rinehart’s flagship Roy Hill mine.

Pet project

Climate 200 founder Simon Holmes a Court seems to have found a new pet project at which he can flick some money in the downtime between elections.

The entrepreneur is starting a think tank with economist Ross Garnaut, author of the famed 2008 Garnaut report on climate change commissioned by the Rudd government. For those who have forgotten, its key recommendation was to create a carbon pricing scheme, and it’s hard to forget how that ended.

Holmes a Court’s latest venture has been appropriately dubbed The Superpower Institute, a play on the high-flown ­titles of two books by Garnaut, the first being Superpower: Australia’s Low Carbon Opportunity, published in 2019, and The Superpower Transformation, which Garnaut edited in 2020.

Ross Garnaut. Picture: Aaron Francis

Documents filed with the corporate regulator list Garnaut and Holmes a Court as its directors alongside Zen Energy’s Susannah Powell and Melbourne University academic Mike Sandi­ford, both of whom contributed to Garnaut’s most recent book.

Unclear exactly what role Holmes a Court is seeking to play in this caper, but given his enthusiasm for angel investing it isn’t far-fetched to imagine that his work probably ends once the signature’s on the cheque.

At least one upside to having a think tank is that its research can conceivably help to shape public policy; having a handful of MPs who were funded by Climate 200, and who are now embedded in the federal parliament, doesn’t hurt either.

He’s not the first to try this out. In NSW the prolific lobbyist and Liberal Party powerbroker Michael Photios has long been affiliated with The Blueprint ­Institute, a think tank whose ­research concerns energy and resources, among other topics. Photios also has a side hustle helping to run Clean Energy Strategies, a corporate advisory that seeks clients in the net-zero space.

Put the two together and the man appears to be bearing both the problem and solution in a neat little package – a bit like carrying fire in one hand and water with the other.

Bligh loses powers

A few months ago Anna Bligh, CEO of the Australian Banking Association, was listed in these pages as one of a handful of corporate leaders bearing an influential relationship with Anthony Albanese, his Labor MPs and the government aides causing an infinite deal of mischief around parliament.

Not that we seek to burst anyone’s bubble, but recent developments would suggest the former Labor premier’s suction ain’t what it used to be, courtesy of Wednesday’s introduction of a bill to finally prop up a Compensation Scheme of Last Resort.

A recommendation of the Hayne royal commission, the scheme is intended to compensate people who lose their savings if – or when – their financial institution goes broke. At last count there were about 2000 backdated claims requiring payment at a ballpark figure of $262m.

Australian Banking Association CEO Anna Bligh. Picture: Jane Dempster

It was the Morrison government which proposed that the 10 largest financial service providers fund the set-up costs, the outstanding debts, and any claims still to come. That was before wealth manager Dixon Advisory collapsed, driving up the costs dramatically. Labor pressed ahead with this plan following its election victory.

What followed since has been a contest among the banks and insurers to try to exclude themselves from having to fund the scheme, with the banks particularly eager to be quarantined from making payments. That’s failed, and in the wash-up it seems the ABA, which handled the lobbying, has much to answer for it.

After all, it was the ABA that stunned the financial services industry in 2015 by vigorously throwing its support behind a CSLR after years of saying nothing about the matter, and doing so under a mistaken belief that its members wouldn’t have to contribute to the compensation.

That’s now exploded in the ABA’s kisser, per the arrival of the legislation, which puts the big four banks and Macquarie all on the hook for the CSLR’s set-up costs, its outlay of capital, and the quarter-of-a-billion dollars in historic claims waiting to be paid.

Why was the ABA unsuccessful in its mission? Some in the industry have pointed to Christine Cupitt, formerly the chief of policy at ABA and essentially Bligh’s right hand. Cupitt had for years been a warrior for the CSLR but exited the ABA just months ago to join the Council of Australian Life Insurers as its chief executive.

The suggestion is that the ABA’s lobbying efforts might have faltered without Cupitt, who transitioned out at the high point of this battle. Bligh was said to have been rudderless without her.

And it seems Cupitt herself, now leading the CALI, was similarly unable to quarantine her own members from contributing, with life insurer TAL still listed among the top 10 institutions expected to provide for the scheme alongside IAG, QBE and Allianz, the latter being a very late addition to the party.

AMP somehow managed to wriggle out of it. Originally roped into this duty, the company argued that on its current measure of revenue the business was too small to be included among the bigger players. Quite an admission, and not something we imagine it would normally concede, of course.