Gina is generous with other people’s money

Dr. Billionaire Gina Rinehart’s National Bush Summit speech in Townsville bore all the hallmarks of a spoiled tycoon and no understanding of the public purse, writes Binoy Kampmark.

ISRAEL DEFENSE PERSONNEL and politicians may not currently get top billing in many countries’ boardrooms and reception halls, but that hardly bothers Australia’s richest (and ever-richer) figure. Gina Rinehart.

With a conscience shriveled by the mantra of digging for commodities and a worldview parched by inherited wealth, the mining magnate has little time for what might loosely be called government. But Israel has plenty of time to devote to its defensive prowess.

In his bulge address in 2024 National Bush SummitHeld in Port Hedland, Western Australia, the chairman of Hancock Prospecting had a brain defense.

A closer look at his uneducated words reveals that the defense he has in mind has little to do with the good citizens of Australia as it does with Gina Rinehart’s mining assets:

“The change in mindset that is required must include the government’s most important responsibility, which is the defense of our country. There is no point in owning the Pilbara’s resources unless we can export them and generate revenue, so we must have the defenses to keep our railways, ports and vital sea lanes open.”

So what was needed?

Rinehart is generous with the wisdom he promotes as a common good:

“So we should have protective iron domes, like those in Israel, surrounding this vital Pilbara engine, as well as combat drones and smart naval mines, in large numbers, and similarly on our sea lanes, our ports and some of our islands from the northwest to the northeast.”

Its interest in emulating an Israeli-style defense approach, taking into account the country’s superior equipment, has clearly not waned.

As recently as June 18, Rinehart said at the National Bush Summit in Townsville, where he came up with an idea aimed at advancing the military industrial complex.

For some reason he thought it appropriate to promote military culture in a city that was already garrisoned and considered sufficiently militaristic for any purpose.

Clearly, revival is sorely needed:

This important culture could flourish again if we offered the Israelis free land near the Prairie, if appropriate, or elsewhere near Townsville, and offered to move skilled people, immediate families, and their equipment there, and encourage the Israelis to develop and build advanced combat drones and other advances in defense, and/or improve their Israeli-style domes and manufacture them here to sell to our country and help secure our people and critical infrastructure.

Rinehart’s June speech had all the hallmarks of a spoiled tycoon.

Having no knowledge of the public purse (he cannot understand the public subsidies that continue to help him and his colleagues), he is eager to brutally consume the budgets of any number of ministries, be it the federal Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.DAFF) and Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) or Federal Ministry of Industry, Science and Resources (DISR).

He is particularly keen to remain the cat of the federal Agency for Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water (DCCEEW) and Clean Energy Regulator (CER).

And then all vacant federal offices can be converted into accommodation for:

“Homeless veterans, struggling retirees, and frightened women and children who face horrific, unacceptable violence and rape.”

How generous can this individual be with other people’s resources?

Despite all this, Rinehart was there to consider how Townsville could benefit from his wisdom. The city had an international airport, a port with ten workplaces, and a developed shipping channel that could accommodate passengers. “Passenger ships up to 300 meters long”. Oh, and “We speak English.”

Putting an end to bureaucratic procedures and reducing taxes will make the city and its surroundings more attractive for industry. So what exactly did you have in mind?

A holy trinity: microchips, Elon Muskcommunications satellites and Israeli defense production.

Land earmarked for wind turbines near the Prairie (Rinehart grows tired of the predictable hostility and “Toxic, full of asbestos, maiming birds and bats, killing birds and bats.”) would be much better given, for example: “Taiwan computer chip industries”.

He added:

“Let’s tell them we can offer a safer alternative to world-leading microchip manufacturing and development, and we welcome them.”

Build an airport on or near the Prairie; create temporary homes with swimming pools, a country club serving exemplary Taiwanese cuisine – the list goes on with the numbing chatter.

As for Musk, he can buy land “SpaceX for satellite construction and launches.”

Give him water and infrastructure too, Rinehart instructed:

“It needs land to expand and an alternative weather site in an allied country for multiple satellite launches.”

Launches are also “definitely add a tourist attraction.”

Of the three proposals, the one that was most disturbed was the one that suggested giving land to the Israeli defense industry.

It didn’t take a while Change.org petition Describing Rinehart’s passion as a quest for establishment, it will be launched urgently “From an Israeli military base in this untouched region.”

To introduce such a foundation:

“It will fundamentally change the character of the area, disrupting not only the landscape but also local communities and wildlife.”

The petition organizers may have nothing to fear about the future of the Prairie, but given the Australian government’s penchant for renting sovereignty with gleeful enthusiasm to the US military empire, their concerns should not be easily dismissed.