Gina Rinehart splashes the cash for Roy Hill miners

Illustration: Rod Clement.

What’s in the water they’re drinking over in the west?

Billionaire marine biologist Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest saving the seven seas and now, his arch nemesis and fellow mining squillionaire Gina Rinehart’s great cash splash to her staff at Roy Hill.

Next? Senator for the wild west Michaelia Cash handing out dole cheques that keep up with the cost of living.

How ridiculous.

Fresh from offering $390 million in cash to the long-suffering shareholders of Atlas Iron, in what many would argue is an overly generous offer for a company that appears to be in terminal decline, richest Australian woman Rinehart has vowed to hand over more of her hard-earned to the workers at her Roy Hill iron ore mine.

Rinehart, 64, has a long history of generously bankrolling various lawyers across Perth, often in an effort to stop the likes of her children Bianca Rinehart and John Hancock and her stepmother Rose Porteous from getting their paws on too much of the family fortune.

But now chairman and matriarch Rinehart, worth $12.68 billion according to the Stensholt Index, is showing her generous side to those toiling away at her integrated iron ore, mining, rail and port operation in the ­Pilbara.

The mining company has committed an unspecified amount of bonus payments to be shared across the Roy Hill staff depending on how well the company meets its cost, production and safety targets.

Roy Hill mine boss Gina Rinehart.

Rinehart will also need to make sure she has enough cash to service her debt facility agreements at the operation.

It would certainly appear to be a well-timed manoeuvre, with competition for labour in the Pilbara starting to crank up as the likes of BHP, Rio Tinto and Forrest’s Fortescue Metals Group start to pump billions into new projects.

Let’s hope Gina’s cash splash has a better end result than that of fellow billionaire Clive ­Palmer, who’s now estimated to be worth a cool $2.84bn.

Palmer’s bout of largesse at his Townsville nickel refinery is now infamous.

In 2010, big Clive handed out 55 Mercedes-Benz cars and 800 Fiji holidays to workers at Townsville after the refinery enjoyed a bumper year.

Many of those same workers are still waiting for their outstanding entitlements after they were left high and dry by the refinery’s 2015 corporate collapse.

And now Palmer wants to have another crack at representative politics in our nation’s capital, promising to “Make Australia Great” (again). Please.

New neighbours

Multi-millionaire Moelis boss Andrew Pridham has new neighbours. Not at his historic town mansion on Mosman’s Bradleys Head Road, but in his spanking new, swanky Cadence and co-built modern masterpiece right behind Kiddies Corner on Palm Beach, north of Sydney.

We hope the buyers of what is believed to be a $20m-plus sale of the home of media investor and Hardie Grant Books chairman John Gerahty and wife Patricia barrack for the Swans, or at least prefer Gillon McLachlan’s AFL action to Todd Greenberg’s NRL rugby league offering.

Otherwise, neighbourly chit chat is going to be awkward with the investment banker Swans chairman and his relatively new wife Carolyn.

Pridham and the Gerahtys each paid $4.15m for their blocks, which were subdivided from a larger lot, with Pridham transacting first via his Cagoa Investments and then the Gerahtys via their Clayburn Pty Limited vehicle a year later, in 2012.

The parcels at the end of the Ocean Road cul-de-sac offer arguably the best views of Palm Beach, with north-facing views up the famed stretch of sand to Barrenjoey Lighthouse.

The new homes designed and constructed by the couples are considered standouts on the exclusive peninsula.

The sale price negotiated by the Gerahtys remains a secret, but there is potential for a new northern beaches record, which is held by the billionaire Oatley family for a home purchased in nearby Avalon for $20m way back in 2002.

Other close-by residents include Gretel Packer, who got her property in the settlement of her late father Kerry Packer’s will with her brother James Packer in 2015, as well as former trusted Packer executive and confidant Sam Chisholm.

Investment banker Russell Aboud’s shack is also close by, along with car dealer Laurie Sutton and property billionaire Bob Rose.

All they all need now is for winter to close.

Silk not so smooth

Not exactly a slam dunk week for AussieSuper boss Ian Silk, who with about $140bn in members’ funds under management runs one of our nation’s biggest organisations.

Silk is not usually afraid to put his views on the table.

He’s a male champion of change and has strong views on executive pay reflecting performance rather than just turning up to sit in the top office day after day.

But this week there was no leading from the front by Silk, also a Basketball Australia director, as the Australian Boomers hung their heads in shame over their courtside all-in brawl with their Philippines counterparts in Manila.

Australian Super chief executive Ian Silk. Picture: Stuart McEvoy.

Silk was nowhere to be seen or heard either when it came to Ben Gray’s BGH Capital-led (but rejected) bid for Paula Dwyer’s Healthscope last month, which saw Silk’s AussieSuper morph from traditional equities investor on behalf of its union member funds to bidding consortium member alongside private equity.

And now AussieSuper is facing what it predicts will be more subdued and potentially volatile returns following what has been a period of strong growth on global markets.

For the 2018 financial year, AussieSuper said yesterday that its flagship balanced fund delivered returns of 11.08 per cent, from 12.44 per cent previously.

Any wonder Silk wants to link up with Gray.