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BHP boss Mike Henry has doubled down on criticism of the Federal Government’s crackdown on labour hire laws, arguing it is taking Australia in the “wrong direction” and will make the country less competitive. “An industrial relations system that delivers productivity, flexibility, and competitiveness to drive job creation and wage growth. Predictability and reduced risk. Under those conditions, the capital will flow,” Mr Henry told the World Mining Conference. “Worryingly, some policies are taking us in the wrong direction and are going to make Australia less competitive: this includes recent and proposed changes to industrial relations legislation, particularly the same job same pay legislation and multi-employer bargaining.”

“Canberra Hill is not a wealth creator or nation builder, but a user and waster of taxpayer funds, an inefficient disperser of taxpayers’ funds, and its record shows a place which fails to understand economic realities,” she said. “This lack of economic realities has resulted in policies which restrict our pensioners, students and even veterans from working as much as they may choose, while there is a widespread worker shortage, a worker shortage crisis, affecting many businesses and supplies.” At a time of record revenue, thanks to mining, one would expect government services to be provided abundantly and efficiently. Unfortunately, the opposite is the case. Notwithstanding the money flowing into state government coffers, the standard of the provision of services, which is the key role of state governments, has never been so poor.

Hancock Agriculture chairwoman Gina Rinehart said the summit was an opportunity for governments to better understand those living and working outside our cities. “Eighty-five per cent of Australians live in large urban locations, but we should not forget the engine room of our country, that being outside the cities in mining and agriculture and all of those who work in our bush,” she said. “They in turn make possible jobs for the many businesses the primary industries support; the truckies, the shops, even accountants, legals, tax advisers and many more.”

Australian billionaire businesswoman Gina Rinehart, through Hancock Agriculture, has seized the opportunity presented by the recently signed Australia-UK free trade deal to enter the British beef market. Rinehart introduced her premium beef products, including the renowned wagyu product called 2GR, from Hancock Agriculture and three new high-quality meats from S. Kidman farms. Emphasising the welfare of the animals, the superior quality, and the detailed provenance of the meat, Rinehart showcased her offerings to a diverse audience consisting of distributors, top chefs, butchers, high-end department stores, and Australian diplomats at the prestigious Meat and Wine Co restaurant in Mayfair.

June 2023.

HANCOCK Agriculture and S. Kidman chair Gina Rinehart and her senior pastoral management team hosted an event in a top London Mayfair restaurant yesterday, celebrating the first month of tariff-free beef trade under the new Free Trade Agreement. Yesterday’s occasion officially launched Kidman beef and two new Hancock Ag 2GR Wagyu branded products into the UK market. The three Kidman brands – 120-day grainfed, Kidman Premium and Kidman Platinum – are all EU accredited, HGP-free and Halal certified. Sister company Hancock has been selling its high-end 2GR Wagyu product into the UK for some time, but since BREXIT has been paying the full tariff on shipments.

Australia’s billionaire businesswoman Gina Rinehart has made a bold foray into the British beef market as the first big mover under the recently signed Australia-UK free trade deal. Mrs Rinehart launched her premium beef products – the “caviar’’ of beef – a wagyu product called 2GR, from the Hancock Agriculture company and three new top of the range meats from the S. Kidman farms, stressing to British customers the welfare of the animals, the superior quality and the detailed provenance of the meat. Mrs Rinehart told a packed audience of distributors, top chefs, butchers, high-end department stores and Australian diplomats at the swish Meat and Wine Co restaurant in Mayfair on Monday: “I was very excited to hear this is the first public, commercial get together to promote more Australian produce to England after the free trade agreement, so I am very excited we are the first.”

While frenzied buying of Australian farmland did not continue at the same pace in the 2022-23 financial year, record-high prices remained, resulting in some extraordinary results. Most notably, Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, has significantly restructured her agricultural portfolio in the past 12 months, selling four S. Kidman and Co cattle stations, which spanned more than 2.4 million hectares in Queensland and the Northern Territory. In the past year, Ms Rinehart’s Hancock Agriculture has shifted towards cropping and Wagyu production, purchasing the Findley family’s 6860ha Wee Waa aggregation in northern NSW for $150 million while also paying about $80 million for two of Packhorse Pastoral’s cattle stations.

The backlash against the state legislation has been led by farmers, miners and property developers, and whipped up by the Liberals and National parties, which both oppose the Voice. Almost 30,000 people have signed a petition urging the Western Australia government to delay the legislation for at least six months. Pastoralists and Graziers’ Association president Tony Seamark, who filed the petition alongside Neil Thomson, the Liberal shadow planning minister, said the legislation has created an “intolerable” situation for landowners.

In the association’s submission during consultation, the group expressed concerns for its 2085 members. “This will have significant detrimental flow-on effects. The processes . . . will severely impact prospectors, sending some completely out of business. “APLA does not support the unworkable process . . . due to the catastrophic effect it will have on prospecting.”

The unachievable “net zero” is a massive con. Our piddling contribution to reducing emissions of CO2 is wiped by the growth in emissions-producing power plants in China, Africa and elsewhere. Oh, and it’s destroying our economy too. But it wasn’t enough for Labor and the Greens and the Teals to have signed up to this humbug. They went further and backed the Voice referendum which, if passed, would give a blank cheque to anyone claiming a skerrick of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander heritage to challenge any law and administrative action, or non-action, on the grounds that they may be affected.