Gina Rinehart’s exec Barry Fitzgerald lashes out at Perth ‘stain’

Illustration: Rod Clement

Billionaire Gina Rinehart’s trusted iron ore executive Barry Fitzgerald won’t be getting the keys to the city of his native Perth.

Not after the violent swipe Fitzgerald took at the West ­Australian capital while speaking at the International Mining and Resources Conference in Melbourne yesterday.

Gina Rinehart at Roy Hill.

It came about as Fitzgerald — the 63-year-old chief executive of Rinehart’s beloved Roy Hill mine — spoke about the size of his mine, the largest single ­open-pit mining operation in the world.

Barry Fitzgerald, chief executive officer of Hancock Prospecting's Roy Hill mine. Picture: Philip Gostelow/Bloomberg.

“If you’re familiar with Perth, you can see the size of our mine superimposed on Perth,” he explained of the Pilbara crater, Roy Hill.

“For those of you that don’t like mining remember, in 25 years time when we finish mining, that footprint will be rehabilitated. All the pits will be filled in,” he continued.

“And thestinking stain on the Swan River valley of Perth city will remain,” he added, urged on by who knows what memory from his Perth childhood. “So just work out which one is the nasty environment.”

After that city review, it seems worth pointing out that Roy Hill’s corporate head office is located right next to Perth Airport — all the better for the boss, a graduate of the University of Western Australia, to get the hell out of the city he can’t stand.

And, as it happens, when Fitzgerald isn’t at his Pilbara operation, or in his office, looking wistfully at the airport up the road, he’s likely to be found at his residence on the north shore of Sydney, in the three-bedder he picked up for $1.7 million back in 2007.

Aussie John’s big bash

Invitations have been sent out for one of the social fixtures of the year, “Aussie” John ­Symond’s Christmas party.

John Symond's Point Piper mansion.

The annual do is held in the enormous Point Piper mansion that Symond (who was last valued at $537m) shares with wife Amber — the same spot where the couple were married in February.

John Symond and his wife Amber will host a Christmas party in their Point Piper mansion.

Symond’s Christmas party regulars include former prime ministers Bob Hawke and John Howard, CBA boss Ian Narev andfellow Point Piper resident and Seven commercial director Bruce McWilliam. Last year Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and partner David Panton were along, as was Westpac boss Brian Hartzer.

But with the spectacular Sydney Harbour property on the market (with an extraordinary price tag north of $100m) this could be the end of an era — unless the new owner takes a similar approach to the festive season.

The best hope for loyal partygoers is that the sales process drags on for another season. That’s not an impossibility for properties in this record-setting price bracket.

Just have a look, across the country, at the 6582sq m of land formerly known as “Taj on Swan”, which Willie Porteous is selling on behalf of Pankaj and Radhika Oswal.

Despite years of speculation, the prime spot in Perth’s Peppermint Grove is still to sell, although an interested buyer from Singapore may change that soon.

Gina Rinehart’s Perth- hating lieutenant Barry Fitzgerald certainly won’t be snapping it up.

Estia boss still waiting

New Estia boss Norah Barlow was going to present at an investor conference in Sydney yesterday held by UBS, the giant Swiss bank that floated the aged-care business for Chris Hadley’s Quadrant Private Equity in December 2014 — before The Fall.

Quadrant Private Equity’s Chris Hadley.

Barlow, who last week reached an in-principle agreement to be the troubled company’s CEO, was a late scratching. Can you blame her?

Estia chair Pat Grier still hasn’t agreed on a three-year contract for Barlow. The market — not exactly brimming with confidence in the company — is still waiting to see her employment terms.

All is supposed to be revealed at the company’s annual general meeting in a fortnight, an engagement Barlow, Grier and what remains of the board won’t be able to pull out of — however much they might like too.

Senator’s sore point

As the bank-hating West Australian senator Rod Culleton would be the first to admit, he’s going through a rough patch.

One Nation Senator Rod Culleton. Picture: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas.

Acting on advice from outgoing Solicitor-General Justin Gleeson, the Turnbull government has asked Robert French’s High Court to scrutinise Culleton’s election to the Senate.

The senator’s a bit sore about that development. “The PM’s let one go under the belt and I’m not happy about it,” Culleton told us yesterday.

Should Culleton’s seat be revoked, it seems it will be taken up by his brother-in law Peter Georgiou, who was second on One Nation’s West Australian Senate ticket at the July 2 election. Culleton’s wife Ioanna was third.

Well-placed speculation around the Senate wing of Parliament House has it that should Georgiou become a senator, he would probably hire Culleton as an adviser to continue the tilt for a royal commission into the banks.

Culleton, in his pastoral style, confirmed as much to us yesterday.

“I’ve always said, I’m the jockey,” Culleton told us.

“I can step down from the horse and be the horse trainer. It’s a bloody good horse.”

What would happen to Culleton’s access to Leigh Clifford’s Qantas Chairman’s Lounge is not yet clear.

Not so fast: Hinch

Call it a sign of these interesting times: one of the most constructive crossbench offices in the 45th federal parliament is that of senator Derryn Hinch.

Senator Derryn Hinch, the Human Headline. Picture: AAP Image/Lukas Coch.

Still, the Human Headline — a bland character, really, compared with Culleton — is wary of being overrun by legislation.

As has been reported, Hinch’s office has asked the Turnbull government to stop lobbying the senator about its two key industrial relations bills: the re-establishment of the Australian Building and Construction Commission and establishment of a Registered Organisations Commission.

The office has suggested to the government that the Senate shouldn’t vote on the bills until next year.

Interestingly, the office has more in-house expertise on the bills than most. One of Hinch’s advisers, Sarah Mennie, worked at Fair Work Building & Construction — the building industry regulator that was established in the Rudd-Gillard era and which the ABCC would replace if the legislation passes.

In her previous gig, Mennie reported directly to the FWBC’s director Nigel Hadgkiss, a useful relationship to test out Employment Minister Michaelia Cash’s lines. Wonder what he’d advise?