This will be news to voters who remember the Liberals and Nationals helping Australia’s richest woman,Gina Rinehart,and its richest man,Andrew Forrest,by repealing the Labor government’s mining tax in 2014. Nobody can be sure how much the big miners have saved in the years since that repeal,but it would make the tax credits look like spare change.
The Liberals still love their billionaires,of course. Dutton flew to Perth on February 29 to celebrate Rinehart’s birthday at a lavish party that night,even though this meant hours of travel for only a short time at the event.The Australian Financial Review revealed he was at Rinehart’s Roy Hill mine last November for a banquet,at which guests were served Bollinger and peach bellinis. To be fair,Dutton took commercial flights at his own expense.
Rinehart has befriended plenty of Liberals and Nationals over the years. That is no shock,given the way wealthy business figures have also cosied up to Labor leaders from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese down. Even the Greens have their wealthy patrons. And nobody matches the sheer volume of cash that mining magnate Clive Palmer gives his own party.
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Even so,the friendship from Rinehart for the Liberals and Nationals has been on a mightyscale. She provided free travel and accommodation to Coalition MPs such as Barnaby Joyce and Scott Morrison before they gained ministries in the Abbott government in 2013,and in 2011 she flew Liberal deputy leader Julie Bishop to India to attend a wedding.
This influence counts. One of Australia’s biggest deals in critical minerals,a lithium mine and refinery called the Nolans project in the Northern Territory,could one day deliver a big pay-off to Rinehart,who is an investor in the developer,Arafura Resources. The project is being backed with $840 million in federal loans.
Labor announced the support last month,but the funding had its genesis in the Coalition’s time in power. Arafura says it gained in-principle support from two federal agencies,Export Finance Australia and the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility,in May and June 2021. Rinehart bought into Arafura at the end of 2022. The Coalitioncleared the way for the financial aid,then Labor sealed the deal.