Australia
Related: About this forumRevealing Rinehart's hard-right agenda
Gina Rinehart's recent string of media acquisitions, including stakes in Ten Network and Fairfax Media, has had the media salivating for over a month now. What makes Rinehart's investments so much more intriguing is that the secretive mining heiress, Australia's richest woman, still won't say what she plans to do with them.
Behind the scenes, Rinehart's mining lobby group, Australians for Northern Development and Economic Vision, offers a glimpse at the policy stance she’ll be pushing for in 2011. And the make-up of the organisation indicates that Rinehart's intentions could be more extreme than anyone has guessed.
ANDEV’s powerful membership, topped by Rinehart and including notable figures such as Hugh Morgan and Ian Plimer, reads like a who’s who of ultra-conservative Australian business.
Publicly, the group says it aims to create a new economic zone in the north of Australia, where miners would be exempt from a number of taxes, and be given the opportunity to import temporary foreign labour.
http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Rinehart-Fairfax-Media-Ten-Network-MRRT-mining-pd20101222-CCQYQ?OpenDocument#.Tu6VyFykVqA.twitter
This woman is scary! You wonder if anyone in Canberra, on either side of politics, has the balls to take her on.
Dodgy
(25 posts)Australia - a democratic nation??? No room for the voice of the people when the corporate agenda dictates govt policy.
Matilda
(6,384 posts)GINA Rinehart, Australia's richest person, is rumoured to be behind a $192 million raid on Fairfax Media shares this afternoon.
(snip)
Such a stake would put her in pole position to demand a board seat and take, if not effective control, a key stake in the company.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/media/hancock-prospecting-chairwoman-rumoured-behind-tilt-at-fairfax-media/story-e6frg996-1226258620809?sv=7ff6b87fe79e17207779985790405a33
Imagine - all our newspapers controlled by Murdoch and Rinehart. It might not be far away.
Matilda
(6,384 posts)"Clearly she is seeking to exert her influence but is she breaking the law by exerting an influence? No," Senator Conroy told ABC Local Radio.
"Do we need stronger laws in this area? Yes.
"We want to see a debate around a public interest test."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-02-01/conroy-flags-tougher-media-laws-after-rinehart-move/3804368
"Shares in Fairfax jumped more than 10 per cent in early trade this morning in the first trade since Ms Rinehart's move."
And from Eric Campbell on Twitter:
So excited Gina Rinehart buying Fairfax. Journalism well served by Harvard MBA management, but WA miners will make life complete @ericcampbellfcp