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Australians should receive a “much-needed” Christmas bonus from the Federal Government, in the form of another fuel excise cut for December, mining billionaire Gina Rinehart believes. Speaking out after hearing about the impact of cost-of-living rises from West Australians at the National Agriculture and Related Industries Day, Mrs Rinehart said halving the 44.2¢ a litre excise would provide relief. Former prime minister Scott Morrison’s government halved the fuel excise to 22.1¢ a litre in March last year, offering six months of cost-of-living relief to drivers.

Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, has earned some high praise after making some big calls on what the government can do to help Aussies out with the rising cost of living and dealing with noisy public activism.

Australia’s richest woman has called on the government to give the nation a “Christmas bonus” in the form of a petrol tax excise cut at a time when people are struggling to deal with spiralling costs and said the “woke” agenda threatened living standards. “Every few dollars counts for people in tough times,” Mrs Rinehart told The Advertiser in an exclusive interview.

Gina Rinehart has issued a grim warning that Aussies face huge price hikes and fresh food shortages unless the burden of climate change policies are lifted from farmers. During an address in Bali on Tuesday, the mining magnate made the ominous forecast to mark National Agriculture & Related Industries Day, of which Mrs Rinehart is the founding patron. Australia’s richest person, who owns millions of farming hectares, said governments need to cap what agriculturalists spend on achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions to $200,000 – or the entire nation faces dire consequences.

And, as has been reported widely, changing IR policy which will make it more difficult for agriculture, mining and many businesses to create the revenue our hugely in debt country needs. If this scenario is not changed, our youth should understand we are creating a nightmare for them – that they will be struggling with high taxes for the rest of their lives. Many will need to forget about the Aussie dream of owning their own home, as they won’t be able to afford such an investment after meeting government tax burdens. Even in schools, governments have been content to not educate children and grandchildren well. In the current high school national curriculum, which mandates what every school child in Australia is taught, iron ore is referenced only twice. Yet climate change and renewable energy are mentioned 48 times. Mining, coal, and iron ore do not receive even one mention in the entire high school economics and business curriculum!

Mrs Rinehart said governments “seem to forget” that “modern resources and agricultural industries underpin human flourishing”, while reigniting her push for the Federal Government to mark two days in November as national days for the two sectors. “For all the platitudes we hear about supporting the agricultural and resources sectors, their actions show the opposite,” she said of governments. “Platitudes and press releases don’t lift a single tonne of any mineral out of the ground.” Mrs Rinehart said the growing burden of red tape – including looming “huge increases” to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act — and increasing regulation around net zero emissions, were evidence that government actions defied their supposed support for the sector.

Australia has long been a nation of primary producers, of farmers and miners who go out into regional and outback areas and contend with whatever nature may throw at them to provide the food, fibre and raw materials that we need to survive and thrive. We have cultivated agriculture that feeds and clothes Australians and tens of millions of people around the world. And we have taken risks and developed the minerals that have enabled higher living standards across Australia and the world. Thanks to our primary industries and the many businesses they support, we live in one of the wealthiest countries that has ever existed, and Australians today have among the highest standards of living ever experienced by human beings.

16 November 2023.

In the absence of any further improvements in the regulatory framework of our resources sector, and in particular with regard to critical minerals, Australia will cede its competitive advantage to other nations with less stringent approval processes and environmental standards. Our leaders seem to have forgotten the crucial role that the mining and resources sector has played and will continue in play in the development of our great nation.

Deteriorating energy infrastructure, lacklustre entrepreneurship and poor competition rules are holding back the Australian economy, with a new report suggesting a drop in competitiveness is putting at risk future prosperity. In a ranking of the most resilient economies, Australia fell to 20th place from first place in 2004, analysis by Institute of Public Affairs senior fellow Kevin You found.