Gina’s son started the stampede

Gina Rinehart at a beach volleyball match in Rio.

There’s an interesting family back-story behind the emphatic Gina Rinehart-led $365 million bid for the expansive Kidman cattle empire.

Of course there is.

Gina Rinehart’s son John Hancock.

The deal structure, if approved by Scott Morrison, would allow Chinese partner Shanghai CRED to own a one-third stake of almost 2 per cent of Australia’s total agricultural land mass. And it looks likely to get the Treasurer’s tick.

Key to that is the political clout — not to mention $6 billion fortune — of Rinehart and her Hancock Prospecting empire.

Watching the deal from the outside is one of the many estranged members of the Hancock clan, Rinehart’s son John Hancock, who is currently in a protracted legal stoush with his mother over his stake in the family fortune.

And while John wasn’t involved in this deal directly, he has some claim to being an intellectual driver of it.

Back in 2011, John wrote a presentation to his mother called “China: Securing its Future”, which made the business case for Hancock acting as a “partner, facilitator of Chinese foreign expansion in Australia”.

John saw — way back at the top of the mining cycle — an opportunity for the family business to diversify their iron ore interests with agricultural ones.

As John remembers it, his mother was focused on India at the time. He argued that she should switch her attention to the Chinese, who had a lot of surplus capital, as well as domestic political encouragement to sow their seeds in strategic overseas markets.

As he argued five years ago in a presentation also sent to Rinehart lieutenants Tad Watroba and Jay Newby, the Hancock business was a very attractive partner for the Chinese.

To the Chinese capital, the family business could bring years of experience “obtaining regulatory approvals, political access, public opinion”.

Which, five years on, is exactly what they are doing for their partner on the Kidman purchase. Forgive Hancock if he feels a little chuffed at his ­prescience — and maybe a bit sore that he’s not in the tent to benefit from it.

A real team player

The nation’s richest woman Gina Rinehart has had a sometimes prickly relationship with the Australian public.

Gina Rinehart at a beach volleyball match at the Rio Olympics.

Currently in charge of helping her relations with the media, as well as government relations, is Sophie Mirabella who — as evidence by her position as the former Liberal Member for Indi — has also had her popularity troubles.

But there’s no doubt that Rinehart has been on something of a charm offensive. Albums worth of svelte pics of the happy Hancock boss were dispatched from the Rio Olympics, as Rinehart — patron of the Australian swimming, volleyball, synchronised swimming and rowing teams — watched her charges.

Rinehart — as is the way with many of our billionaires — has long taken a diligent approach to government relations.

Her favourite is deputy Prime Minister and Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce, perhaps the most important person in the country to have onside for the Kidman transaction. Indeed, the billionaire chipped in about $50,000 to the Nationals leader’s 2013 election campaign. She was a big backer again as Tony Windsor tried, successfully, to unseat Joyce on July 2.

Her network is much broader than that, as repeatedly disclosed in the registers of interests. Among many who have enjoyed the Rinehart hospitality is leader of the South Australian right Cory Bernardi, whodeclared “transport, accommodation and hospitality” during the last term. West Australian Liberal senator Dean Smith also had the Roy Hill experience back in 2014.

And before West Australian senator Michaelia Cash was Employment Minister, Hancock helped out on a chartered flight.

So lots of connections in the Coalition party to pass on their thoughts to Scott Morrison on her Kidman tilt.

Not that the Treasurer is likely to need a lot of convincing for a deal that looks likely to elegantly end an embarrassing foreign investment saga.

Gui makes his mark

Billionaire Gui Guojie’s property business Shanghai CRED Real Estate is the Chinese third in the $365m bid for Kidman. Gina Rinehart has the other two-thirds.

Malcolm Turnbull and Gui Guojie. Picture: AFP Photo/Johannes Eisele.

Gui — who started out as a carpenter before rising to the heights of the Shanghai property world — is known to have long admiredRinehart’s iron ore business success.

He’s also an admirer of AFL and has become a backer of chairman David Koch’s club Port Adelaide, apparently after falling in love with the code during a match at the Adelaide Oval. Thanks to his financial support, Port Adelaide is due to start annual games in Shanghai from next season.

The code’s expansive networking opportunities have clearly not been lost on him.

Indeed, the AFL connection saw Gui pop up — apparently to the surprise of the Prime Minister’s office — during Malcolm Turnbull’s trip to China in April.

Gui was also along in the Olympic Room, at the MCG, for the recent AFL grand final where he met AFL boss Gill McLachlan, PM Turnbull and — perhaps most exciting of all — Hollywood actors Liam and Chris Hemsworth.

One of Rinehart’s potential rivals for Kidman, fellow well-connected billionaire Kerry Stokes, was also in the room.

Despite Gui’s passion for the game, the Chinese AFL lover had to duck off at quarter time. Business called in John Key’s New Zealand where Gui also has significant landholdings.

Robinson’s round

The new company established by Gina Rinehart for the bid for SirSidney Kidman’s pioneering cattle empire is Australian Outback Beef Pty Ltd, which sits under the greater Hancock Prospecting vehicle.

Ginia Rinehart and Simon Robinson, who got married in June.

It was registered back on July 27 — just over three weeks after Malcolm Turnbull’s government was returned.

For now, its two directors are Hancock Prospecting executive directors Jay Newby and Tadeuz “Tad” Watroba. Hancock company secretary Jabez Huang is down for the same role at the new beef company.

No sign yet of anyone from Shanghai CRED Real Estate.

Also no sign — yet — of Rinehart’s son-in-law Simon Robinson, who wed the billionaire’s youngest daughter Ginia at Hamilton Island’s luxury Qualia Resort in June.

Shortly after the marriage Robinson — a former electrician and alumni of Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan’s old school Nambour High — was appointed to a range of directorships where he sits alongside his new 62-year-old mother-in-law. The agricultural assets include two west Kimberley cattle stations and an abattoir. Robinson’s responsibilities might soon grow by about the size of one-and-a half Tasmanias.