Sparky Simon Robinson hits paydirt with Gina Rinehart
It’s taken no time for Australia’s richest woman Gina Rinehart to integrate her new son-in-law, Simon Robinson from Nambour on the Sunshine Coast, into her vast business empire.
Robinson, 39, wed billionaire Gina’s youngest daughter Ginia on the weekend at Hamilton Island’s luxury Qualia Resort.
It’s a big deal for the Hancock Prospecting matriarch, with the near 30-year-old Ginia her closest ally in the ugly legal battle with her older children John, Bianca and Hope over a multibillion-dollar family trust.
Just weeks ahead of the weekend’s nuptials, Gina brought Robinson inside the tent (last valued at $6.06 billion) to help run her expanding pastoral interests in northern Australia. The former sparky was appointed to a range of directorships where he sits alongside his 62-year-old mother-in-law.
The agricultural assets include two west Kimberley cattle stations and an abattoir. That could bring Robinson into contact with rival Perth billionaire Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest’s beef man John Hartman, who now runs Minderoo’s cattle interests.
Hartman was, you’ll remember, partner-in-crime of insider trader (and Riverview mullet pioneer) Oliver Curtis before Twiggy gave him a second chance in the wild west.
Humble beginnings
There’s no Riverview connection to Gina’s new son-in-law.
Robinson instead went to Nambour High before reportedly becoming an electrician and then joining the armed services.
Nambour High’s alumni also includes former prime minister Kevin Rudd and his treasurer Wayne Swan — arch enemies of Rinehart during the Great Mining Tax Stoush of 2010. What a lot to talk about at the school’s 70th anniversary in 2023.
Noisy neighbours
So where will the newlyweds call their marital home?
Renovations on Gina’s late father Lang Hancock’s mansion on Victoria Avenue in prestige Perth suburb Dalkeith continue. The works include the installation of a swimming pool that straddles the boundary of mum Gina’s adjacent newer home further down the massive block and next to the picturesque Swan River.
Gina has also completed extensive renos on her waterfront home, adding a cabana and an extension comprising a new bedroom, bathroom, lift and terrace.
Who wouldn’t want to live next to their new mother-in-law?
Up the creek
Meanwhile, 800 metres across the Swan River in Perth’s equally exclusive Peppermint Grove, the only activity in the vicinity of Pankaj and Radhika Oswal’s so-called “Taj on the Swan” is from the local council, which is getting set to call in the $110,000 that the litigious vegetarians owe the municipality for unpaid rates.
This week’s Federal Court decision that voided the mortgage held by a company associated with Radhika’s brother means that Peppermint Grove shire chief John Merrick can now issue a writ to collect his council’s money directly from the couple.
The Oswals can expect a demand within days.
And what of the concrete eyesore’s demolition?
There’s been no movement so far, although the Oswals have been ordered to sort it out by the end of September.
There is also no sign at the property of preparatory work the couple were ordered to carry out by December last year.
Nor has there been any fresh planning application from the couple towards redevelopment of the site into apartments, as mooted by Radhika, which would be tricky anyway under the local town planning regulations.
And further complicating things, we note that Google Maps now tags the unfinished and abandoned home as a “tourist attraction”. It’s that kind of town.
Hawke spotting
Brian Tyson’s three-year-old corporate communications firm Newgate threw one of the eight-week-long election’s better parties at Justin Hemmes’ Ivy last night.
Former Labor PM Bob Hawke was the guest of honour, and was put through his paces by ABC radio host Fran Kelly.
"Ignorance is the enemy of good policy". Bob Hawke 30/6/16 at #newgate pre election function pic.twitter.com/EZd0yIeU9o
— Ken Boundy (@rhubarblover) June 30, 2016
Earning her extra-curricular fee, Kelly grilled Hawkie on Bill Shorten’s scare campaign on the privatisation of Medicare.
“Yeah, they had some bloke on television,” Hawke said. If you missed it, that guy was Hawke.
The ALP’s longest-serving PM also just about conceded defeat ahead of tomorrow’s election.
Peta Credlin was also along with a fur-trimmed, studded handbag, catching up with Tyson and the woman who crowned her the most powerful woman in Australia, former Women’s Weekly editor-in-chief Helen McCabe.
Baird operatives Clive Mathieson and Nigel Blunden were also along, as were most of Newgate’s 60 staff.
Farewell to Nico
A historic day, this one, as we farewell from these pages a legend of Australian cartooning Peter Nicholson.
What a career. Nico joined The Australian in 1994, drawing cartoons for news, the editorial pages, the media section and in the last few years we’ve been lucky enough to work with him here at Margin Call.
He’d already had two successful careers before he joined The Oz. Nico produced the animation series Rubbery Figures for the ABC, which he later took to Steve Vizard’s Fast Forward on Channel 7.
Before that, he was a cartoonist best known for his 17 years at The Age. It was for Les Carlyon’s Age that in 1976 he drew — among other classics — the infamous Whitlam “Did the earth move for you too, dear?” cartoon.
He is one of the great practitioners of his noble craft. It’s been an honour.
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