Mining billionaire Gina Rinehart raises funds for WA Liberal leader and Nationals star

Mining billionaire Gina Rinehart has thrown her support behind two of WA’s best known conservative politicians in the countdown to the state election and a federal poll where the west could hold the key to the outcome.

Hancock Prospecting chair Gina Rinehart in WA.

Mining billionaire Gina Rinehart has thrown her support behind two of WA’s best known conservative politicians in the countdown to the state election and a federal poll where the west could hold the key to the outcome.

Mrs Rinehart is hosting a $5000-a-head fundraising dinner for WA Liberal leader Libby Mettam, who late last month slapped down those pushing for Perth lord mayor Basil Zempilas to replace her ahead of the WA election due in March.

WA Liberal leader Libby Mettam at Parliament House. Picture: Colin Murty

Australia’s richest person is hosting a separate $3000-a-head fundraising dinner for Mia Davies, the star National Party candidate for the new federal seat of Bullwinkel in WA that covers farms and outer Perth suburbs dotted with fly-in, fly-out mine workers.

Ms Davies was out on the hustings in Bullwinkel with shadow resources minister Susan McDonald over the weekend, and appeared alongside National Party leader David Littleproud during farmer protests against government policies in September.

Ms Davies is seeking to make the transition to Canberra after 17 years in WA parliament, including a stint as Opposition leader after Labor’s crushing victory in the 2021 election left the WA Nationals with four lower house seats and the Liberals with just two.

She is eyeing a spot in cabinet if the Coalition wins the federal election, and is expected to make her case for a louder voice for miners and farmers to business leaders at a breakfast event in Perth on Wednesday.

The Davies fundraiser is scheduled for December 18 in Perth, with the Mettam fundraiser the following night.

In various public speeches calling for policy reform to support mining, productivity and economic growth in Australia, Mrs Rinehart often avoids mentioning political parties by name but is a high-profile supporter of US president-elect Donald Trump and Indian leader Narendra Modi.

She has also been linked to fundraising events in Queensland for Liberal leader Peter Dutton and her private company, Hancock Prospecting, has made donations to the Liberal Party.

Mrs Rinehart wants the Coalition to follow Mr Trump’s lead by taking an uncompromising policy agenda to the federal election.

“This is not a time for LINOs (Liberal in Name Only), timidly fiddling around a few edges, careful not to upset the minority noises or rapidly increasing bureaucrats, none of whom will ever vote for the Coalition. We need to make Australia great again,” she said in her National Mining Day speech last month.

Mrs Rinehart, Ms Mettam and Ms Davies all declined to comment on the fundraising support.

Ms Mettam emerged triumphant from a party room crisis meeting on November 26 where she challenged her parliamentary colleagues to move a motion of no confidence against her.

No one accepted that offer, and a motion to install Mr Zempilas – a prominent personality at Seven West Media – as the party’s election campaign leader was easily defeated.

Mr Zempilas, the Liberal candidate for the seat of Churchlands, was then forced into damage control after revelations a marketing firm run by his former lord mayoral campaign manager commissioned polling that sparked the party room crisis meeting.

Ms Davies had a run-in with then deputy prime minister and National Party leader Barnaby Joyce in 2018, calling on him to resign because of the “ongoing damage” he was causing the party.

The call came as Mr Joyce took leave in the fallout from the collapse of his marriage and prepared for the birth of his first child with his former media adviser, Vicky Campion.