‘Make our bank accounts great again’ Gina Rinehart declares as she calls on Liberals to step up

Mining magnate Gina Rinehart has taken aim at Liberal Party moderates, declaring Australia should follow the lead of the United States and Argentina by slashing government. “Don’t be frightened to call for ‘make our bank accounts great again’,” Ms Rinehart said in a speech in Moomba, South Australia. Australia’s richest person — worth an estimated $40 billion — was speaking at National Mining Day, which she founded in 2013. Recent data has showed Australia’s GDP per capita, measuring the slice of the economic pie per person, has been falling for more than a year. “This is the longest-running decline in our national living standards on record,” Ms Rinehart, the executive chair of Hancock Prospecting said. “Record business failures, record and rising national debt, rising inflation and our cost of living crisis. “This is not a time for LINOs, timidly fiddling around a few edges, careful not to upset the minority noisies or rapidly increasing bureaucrats, none of whom will ever vote for the Coalition.” LINO means Liberal In Name Only, a term used to criticise right-wing politicians perceived as too moderate. Ms Rinehart took inspiration from moves by incoming United States president-elect Donald Trump, including the planned Department of Government Efficiency in the United States — a crack squad led by Elon Musk — and major cuts to corporate tax. She also gave a shout out to Argentina’s President Javier Milei, who was elected in 2023 on a platform of smaller government. Mr Milei was a “brave outstanding leader”, Ms Rinehart said. “Let’s remind our Aussie politicians, and try to persuade the LINOs, that governments do not create wealth, they only consume it,” she said. “If they want to see higher investment, higher living standards, higher wages, more jobs, new technologies and innovation, more businesses basing themselves in Australia and creating jobs and paying taxes, more to Treasury, we need to massively cut the onerous burdens that government places on businesses.”