Taking Rio Tinto money a family affair for Grylls

Illustration: Rod Clement.

Quiz time: Who employs the brother of the Robin Hood of Western Australia, Brendon Grylls?

The miner now run by French-born Anglophile Jean-Sebastien Jacques (aka “The Sheriff of Nottingham”), Rio Tinto, which celebrated the 50th birthday of its iron ore business last night in Perth.

Jean-Sebastien Jacques, chief executive officer of Rio Tinto. Picture: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg.

Nathan Grylls — Brendon’s brother — works at Rio’s Channar iron ore mine in the Pilbara. He’s a “production operator”, handling machinery.

It’s a family connection to big mining to keep in mind as the other Grylls, the newly installed WA Nationals leader, pursues his plan to slug J-S’s Rio and Scotsman Andrew Mackenzie’s BHP Billiton for $3 billion a year (at current production levels) through his proposed $5-a-tonne tax on iron ore.

Rio’s WA iron ore boss, Chris Salisbury,has said Grylls’s scheme could “put jobs at risk”. Presumably, jobs like Nathan’s.

Dishing it out

Thanks to that proposal, Brendon Grylls has become the big miners’ bete noire.

Nathan Grylls, Rio Tinto employee and brother of Brendon Grylls.

He’s also a major headache for embattled Premier Colin Barnett, who is also struggling against a coterie of the WA business community, including property developerNigel Satterley, not to mention much of his own scheming caucus.

But it’s worth remembering that the Nats leader, and state member for the electorate of Pilbara, is not without his supporters in Rio and BHP’s expansive WA workforces.

When he was Nats leader last time around, Grylls secured the “Royalties for Regions” scheme — which was also controversial at the time.

That policy — passed into WA law in 2009 — sends 25 per cent of the state’s massive annual mining royalties to regional projects. It has spent billions since its inception.

Brendon had good intel on the problem the policy was created to fix. Back in 2005, his brother Nathan — in his early days as a Rio employee — was living in a caravan in Karratha because of a boom-induced housing shortage.

Royalties for Gryllsy

Brother Nathan has since been a direct beneficiary of the program — as is well know to readers of the Shire of Ashburton’s publication Active Ashburton (which, as it happens, is sponsored by Rio).

WA Nationals leader Brendon Grylls.

In its June edition, Nathan (nickname: “Gryllsy”) was honoured with the “volunteer of the month award” for his good work at the Paraburdoo Motorcycle Club, of which he is vice-president.

Gryllsy has been particularly good at securing grants for the racing club.

“The biggest achievement has been applying for a successful $20,000 Royalty for Regions Grant and building the new pit shed,” he told Active Ashburton. “That took a lot of work over 12 months with just a few people. It’s very rewarding to see it complete.”

So there you go.

Brendon — whatever his tax plans — shouldn’t be entirely without fans at the world’s second-biggest mining company, even if he couldn’t make last night’s gala dinner.

All smiles

Call it Alan Joyce’s second turnaround project.

Alan Joyce’s smile in February.

Having fixed up Qantas — as demonstrated by its record $1.5bn underlying profit this week — the Irish-born CEO has taken an even more dramatic approach to his teeth.

Alan Joyce’s smile in August. Picture: John Feder/The Australian.

And while the airline took years to get into shape, the dental restructure has been much quicker. We gather caps are to credit for the impeccable job.

The finished result is the most impressive teeth straightening since Tom Cruise got his done on the way to becoming Hollywood’s biggest star.

Cruise, you don’t need to be reminded, is best known for playing hotshot pilot Maverick in the movie Top Gun — which, as it happens, turned 30 in July, a month after Joyce turned 50.

Plenty of reason — in addition to his handsome new choppers — for Joyce to come as Maverick to Qantas’s next fancy dress party.

Coffee on Colorbond

Back to 50th anniversary celebrations, this week also marked a half century of Colorbond steel being produced at Port Kembla, in south Wollongong.

BlueScope boss Paul O'Malley.

Colorbond is one of the signature products for BHP spin-off BlueScope — the ASX-listed steelmaker that isn’t in administration (unlike South Australia’s latest corporate disaster, Arrium).

Momentous anniversaries on each side of the country for our biggest miners and their offshoots.

So what does BlueScope chief Paul O’Malley have planned to mark the occasion?

“If you’re lucky, you might see a Colorbond coffee van around,” O’Malley told us.

“That’s about all we’re good for.”

A textbook corporate humblebrag from a thrifty, profitable steelmaker with a market cap of $5bn.

Island people

Hamilton Island has long been a great spot for rich people spotting during the last week of August.

Francesca Packer Barham at Hamilton Island.

While former UBS managing director David Di Pilla (aka “Pepe Le Pew”) was cooking up his Masters property play, Rob Salteri — the head of the rich family Pepe married into — was floating around the Oatley family-owned Whitsunday Island on his boat One O Nine.

Melissa Doyle at Hamilton Island.

Also at Hamilton — but seemingly less interested in the sailing — was Francesca Packer Barham, granddaughter of the late media tycoon Kerry Packer, and daughter of heiress Gretel Packer (who celebrates her 50th birthday this Tuesday at Matt Moran’s restaurant Chiswick, in Sydney’s wealthy east).

The effervescent “Chessie” was spotted enjoying the fine wine — all from the Robert Oatley range, of course — at the Darren Palmer-decorated secret dinner in the helicopter hangar of Hamilton Island airport, and again at the Paspaley pearls “white lunch” at the exclusive Qualia resort.

At the other end of the personality spectrum from the young Packer was doctor turned Liberal Party leader turned Australian War Memorial boss Brendan Nelson, who was there as a guest of Audi, along with Siemens chief executive Jeff Connolly, the head of logistics giant Schenker Ron Koehler, Phillip and Gianna Di Bella of Di Bella Coffee fame, and the head of Hawthorn Football Club Stuart Fox.

And here we were thinking Fox was bunkered in a library at Stanford University’s graduate school, learning about management. Silly us.