Gina Rinehart’s bold vision for Australia’s future as she warns the country could face food shortages if nothing is done

Mining magnate Gina Rinehart has called for a nuclear-powered Australia to replace “bird-killing wind generators and massive solar panels.”

The richest woman in the country demanded the country’s shift towards a nuclear future when she delivered a rare speech at Australia’s Bush Summit in Perth on Monday.

In a 12-minute attack on government policy, she demanded an end to the red tape that tied farmers and businesses in rural Australia.

But she used her closing remarks about the huge costs for farmers to commit to zero emissions to shift the focus from green renewables to using nuclear energy.

She warned that the consequences of the costly switch could cause widespread food shortages and further increase sales prices.

“Let’s not upset many farmers with bird-killing wind generators and huge solar panels,” she said.

“Bring on clean, safe nuclear power, Australia.”

Ms. Rinehart laid out a list of demands to the government that she said would improve life in the Outback and “try to put a smile on your face.”

She sent her strongest message about the high bill farmers had to pay to meet zero-emission carbon targets.

Her Hancock Agriculture business runs 14 farms in Western Australia with 12,000 head of Wagyu beef cattle, one of the largest herds in the country.

“Farming usually doesn’t have the financial resources that mining has and this is a big thing that we think we’re overlooking,” she said.

“It just doesn’t have the resources – unless, of course, you have a mining company in your back pocket.

‘You actually have to add up the costs of this net-zero policy for farmers.

“Just look at the purchase of electric vehicles,” she added.

‘Whether it’s lawnmowers, motorcycles, cars, four-wheel drive, tractors, harvesters, trucks, bulldozers, graders, front loaders…

“It’s going to cost a fortune that farmers and ranchers don’t have without a mining company in the back pocket. They just don’t have this money to invest.’

She said the bill to switch to solar was huge for remote estates and required huge battery backups for when the sun wasn’t shining.

Ms Rinehart said her company’s research had estimated the cost at about $650,000 to equip rural properties with solar power and the required battery backup.

“What they forget is that we’re not attached,” she said. ‘We’re five hours from Broome. There is no mains voltage that you just have to turn on.

‘You have to invest enormously in huge batteries to be able to supply when the sun isn’t shining. And that was forgotten.

“It’s just impossible.”

She called for a $200,000 limit to be spent by farmers on the transition to zero emissions, with the government taking on the rest of the costs.

“Most farmers and others in agriculture can’t afford Net Zero,” she said. “They will have to leave farming.

As a result, Aussies in the cities will see massive food price increases and fresh food shortages. This is the mess that needs to be sorted out.”

She said her father Lang Hancock had pioneered Australia’s mining revolution, which changed the lives of those “above the 26th parallel” in the north of the country.

And she insisted she had stayed close to her father, despite the falling out over his marriage to third wife Rose Porteous, which broke up the family.

More details of the altercation emerged on Monday at Perth High Court, just half a mile from where Ms Rinehart gave her speech.

A mining rights lawsuit involving Ms. Rinehart and her family heard that she had tried to have Ms. Porteous expelled from the country during the altercation.

“It’s sad that the media likes to ignore the good when you’re successful and not a socialist,” she said.

“Even in recent days, ignoring the close bond this Western Australian family had for decades.

Like referring to some correspondence when I was very concerned about our family business for a few years.

‘Unfortunately, rightly so.

“Without adding the truth that Dad and I had become close again before his sad departure in 1992 and I admire his moral and courageous stand in his final weeks.”

She added: ‘My father was a great lover of the bush and our country all his life.

“He sometimes made himself unpopular by standing up for what he thought was best.

“He has made a tremendous and exceptional contribution to our North, our state and our country.”

And she used her relationship with her father to support her call for nuclear power and tried to allay fears about the potential risks.

“Having grown up on stations, the family unit is close and trusting, as ours certainly was, which used to be known in Western Australia,” she said.

“We rode together in the far north for a long time and watched the cattle and watched the windmills. I was there to open the gates.’

She quoted a story about the American physicist Edward Teller that her father told her on one of those trips.

She said he found that the radiation from standing next to a nuclear power plant for a year was only slightly more than what a man would get from sleeping with his wife.

But if he slept with two women, he would actually get more radiation from them than from the nuclear power plant.

“Don’t forget Dr. Teller scientifically verified this,” she added with a grin.

Ms Rinehart had previously called for older people and students to work more hours without losing pensions or social security and to reduce paperwork and legal restrictions.

“Imagine the smiles when we finally get to fill those jobs in the bush and see hospitals and health centers improve hours and effectiveness,” she said.

She also wanted more money to be spent on high-income services in mining areas.

“Honestly, we should have the best equipped and most luxurious hospitals in Newman, Dampier, Port Hedland and other mining towns thanks to the revenue we generate in the Pilbara and similar ones in other mining areas,” she said.

‘And ditto, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year runways so that the better equipped and fastest Royal Flying Doctor aircraft can always arrive.

“We and our people in the outback would be safer.”