Mining magnate and pastoralist Gina Rinehart has urged the government to “drill, baby, drill and dig, baby, dig” and use the proceeds to massively upgrade defence, including with an Israeli-style “iron dome” missile deflection system.
Presenting a personal defence and economic blueprint for Australia at News Corp’s bush summit in Townsville on Friday, Rinehart called for the reintroduction of compulsory national service for “all biological men … under, say, 53” with voluntary service for “biological women”.
A sponsor of the series of summits to be held across Australia, Rinehart urged the government to install an iron-dome system on the islands across Australia’s north and move the defence department to northern Australia, where a refinery and manufacturing base should be built to supply defence equipment.
In the prerecorded address, Rinehart said the government should invest in smart sea mines, “many, many” war-fighting drones, boost the navy’s capability and move maintenance to northern Australia so ships did not need to travel back and forth to southern bases.
“You may ask, how are we going to pay for this? Simple: we should cut government wastage – and there’s a lot of that – and we should drill, baby, drill and dig, baby, dig,” she said.
She called for the abolition of fuel excise, payroll tax, licence fees and stamp duty.
“Wouldn’t that help the cost of living?” she said.
Rinehart also called for special economic zones to be reintroduced across northern Australia with tax incentives to encourage investment.
“There used to be tax rebates for people working in the north,” she told the Townsville audience. “All those above the 26th [parallel] deserve this. I suggest you chase this to be reinstituted promptly.”
Rinehart expressed concern for people in poverty struggling during the cost-of-living crisis.
Her economic solutions included allowing all recipients of government benefits to do unlimited paid work without “onerous” paperwork.
“Too many in our country are, with these government restrictions, wrongly facing ‘heat or eat’,” she said. “This is unacceptable. Our politicians should act immediately.”
She said the country faced a worker shortage crisis which she blamed on immigration “making it difficult for our own Aussies to work if they choose”.
Without providing evidence, Rinehart also blamed migrants for the high cost of housing, an alleged increase in crime and pressures on the health system.
She warned Australia was going “down” not “up”.
“We want to hear from pollies that they will be the leaders that deliver the up,” Rinehart said. “We’ve sure had enough of the down. The down makes many parents worry for the future of their children and grandchildren, and many in agriculture worry if the agricultural industry can even survive. Down will continue if we don’t cut government approvals and [red] tape that add costs and delays.”
Rinehart said she would be putting forward more ideas to improve Australia as the bush summit event moved around the country. In Townsville – a military town – her focus was the economy and defending Australia from foreign attack.
“If we don’t have our country, what future do we have? This should be the prime duty of our governments. Boy, have they all let us down.”
Rinehart’s address was introduced by the Queensland Nationals MP Keith Pitt, who praised her “spectacular” contribution as the country’s biggest tax contributor and a major philanthropist.
“She is a great Australian who continues to invest in our country, regardless of all of the politicians, MPs and policies that tend to get in the way with red and green tape,” Pitt said.
