An insider recording of Peter Dutton paying tribute to Gina Rinehart AO at an industry event has emerged online. The video has been published by YouTube-based journalist Jordan Shanks.
The “gala event”, the National Mining and Related Industries Day, took place in late November 2024. The event was held at Santos’s Moomba Gas Field in the South Australian desert and sponsored by Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting.
“Can I first congratulate Gina Rinehart and Tad Watroba [Hancock’s executive director] as patrons of this National Mining and Related Industries Day,” began Dutton. “I thank them sincerely for the leadership they provide in a sector so critical to our national economy.”
Dutton promised that if elected, he would “unleash the magic of the marketplace. I want to rip up as much red and green tape as possible.”
“Friends, I make you this promise: a Dutton Coalition government will be the best friend the resource sector in Australia will ever have. We will slash project approval times in half by capping assessment timeframes.”
“We will defund the activist-led Environmental Defenders Office. We will limit the ability of third parties to challenge decisions under the EPBC [Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation] Act. We will do all these things because I want to turbo-charge mining in Australia.”
In his pitch to the industry, Dutton ended up lauding the environmental and labour record of Albanese’s government. If Labor is re-elected, he said, “The regulatory burdens are going to get even worse. We can expect Labor to double down on using Commonwealth environment and cultural heritage laws to stymie even more projects.” He promised to “rip up red and green tape.”
The pitch, in other words: think of the projects you could do if you didn’t have to worry about “laws”.
The opposition leader went on to denounce Labor for its “reckless” renewables plan and for encouraging unionisation of mine workers in the Pilbara and NSW coal mining. “We will have your backs and I hope that you’ll have ours as well,” he closed, before thanking Rinehart again for her friendship and leadership.
Gina Rinehart also spoke at the event. Rinehart reportedly agitated against the government, criticising the idea of “let’s appease the crocodile in order for the crocodile to eat us last…the crocodile being the government,” as Hancock reported it. Rinehart continued that “she sure hoped the corporates were beginning to understand the reality, that the left and left elites were no real friend of the corporates.”
Thumbnail image courtesy of @haltakov via Unsplash.
Sign Up To Our Free Newsletter