Article by Olivia Ireland and Mike Foley, courtesy of The Sydney Morning Herald
05.05.2025
Mining magnate Gina Rinehart is urging politicians to shift further to the right and adopt US President Donald Trump’s policies as she blames the “left media” for the Coalition’s disastrous election result.
“Trump-style ‘make Australia great’ policies via cutting government tape, government bureaucracy and wastage, and hence being able to cut taxes, [are] too scarce in Australia this year to rate a mention,” Rinehart said in a statement to the Daily Mail.
“No doubt the left media will now try to claim that the Liberal loss was because the Liberal Party followed Trump and became too right!
“The two simply don’t add up!”
Rinehart’s call for the Liberal Party to shift to the right clashes with pleas from moderates for their colleagues to move the party towards the centre and to recruit more women via quotas, setting up a fight for the future of the Liberals’ policy direction.
But Rinehart blamed the media for the Liberals’ election result. “The left media did a very successful effort, frightening many in the Liberal Party from anything Trump, and away from any Trump-like policies,” she said.
Rinehart is a major Coalition donor who has attended events with Trump. She has also run newspaper ads praising the president’s return to office. This masthead’s Resolve Political Monitor showed before the election that Trump was deeply unpopular with Australian voters.
In her statement, Rinehart reflected on visiting the “known left-educated, left-voting, Democrat area” of New York before the US election in November, where she said she donned a Make America Great Again hat to attract discussion with passers-by.
“Walking around the rubbish in streets, and more than a little concerned about safety at times, wearing my Trump hat and bag and more to attract, well, [I] must admit I did let rotten eggs, tomatoes, slip into my mind, but hoping also to attract discussion,” Rinehart said.
“What do you think those in their late twenties and thirties were telling me, educated on left propaganda?
“It’s hard to get married because they couldn’t afford homes – even rental, they were worried about their future, some were in their thirties and worried they could never afford a family, yes, USA birth rates have gone down.
“What was I hearing from parents with young children? Financially, they were really struggling to cope. These previous young Democrats, brought up in years of left propaganda mis-education, were becoming Republicans!”
Rinehart wondered: “Why are Americans getting it, and we aren’t?”
Moderate Liberals such as Keith Wolahan, a Melbourne MP who could lose his seat, and NSW senator Andrew Bragg have urged the party to take the opposite approach to Rinehart and drop culture wars in favour of modern urban values.
“We have a healthy ‘live and let live’ ethos in this country, and we have diversity and, generally speaking, that’s what most Australians are comfortable with,” Bragg told the ABC on Monday. “They don’t want to see division.
“And so I think it’s very important that we focus on the economic issues and that we avoid these cultural issues at all costs.”
Melbourne Liberal MP Jason Wood told the ABC on Monday that Trump was a “total disaster” for the Dutton campaign.
Liberal senator Alex Antic, however, echoed Rinehart’s argument.
“Presumably, the left wing of the party will find new and inventive ways to postulate that we must lean further left to succeed,” he said. “The truth is that the party has spent too long pandering to the false narratives of net zero, globalisation and mega immigration.”
Former Coalition leader Peter Dutton said before the election campaign that school curriculums should be reformed to stop children being “indoctrinated”, but he backtracked during the campaign.
Rinehart said this was a mistake. “One of the first things the Liberals need to do is education, based on the old but true principles of common sense and truth,” she said.
Rinehart also criticised Australia’s commitment to reaching net zero emissions, environmental protections and labour law reforms implemented by the Albanese government.
“Too many Aussies seem very short on understanding that new investment is needed to create revenue and living standards,” the billionaire said.
Rinehart appealed to parents, saying their children would suffer unless “common sense” changes were made to public policy.
“Rather than just desert our country in the years ahead, let’s not forget, many of the returned government are parents, too. Do they really want to bring in ideological policies that will see the economy suffer and their children struggle?”