Mining magnate Gina Rinehart has called on the federal government to implement a “Christmas bonus” cut in the price of gasoline.
Ms Rinehart said halving fuel duty from 44.2 cents per liter would provide much-needed relief to Australians struggling with “ridiculous” petrol costs, on top of all the other skyrocketing prices.
“Most people forget that the government taxes every tank of fuel we use at around 50 cents per liter (including GST), so when politicians say there’s not much they can do about it, the truth is there is,” said Ms Rinehart. The Western Australia.
“It could happen from December 1 and then, if necessary, get back to normal after Christmas, the longer after Christmas the better.
“Let this be a much-needed Christmas bonus for the country, at a time when millions of Aussies need it more than I have seen in decades.
Mining magnate Gina Rinehart has called on the federal government to halve fuel duty as a ‘Christmas bonus’ for Australians struggling with rising prices
‘Petrol duty was halved by the Morrison government 18 months ago as an emergency measure to help the economy; But today, many households are still facing a real budget crisis.”
The previous Morrison government halved fuel duty to 22.1 cents per liter in March last year, with the measure remaining in place for six months but allowed to lapse by the Albanian government.
The reduction was credited with saving families $300 over the six months, at a cost of $2.7 billion from federal government revenues.
Ms Rinehart, Australia’s richest person with a fortune estimated at more than $34 billion, said the state and governments were out of touch with ordinary Australians.
“People are suffering from the continued rise in the cost of living and loan payments, and all I hear from my wonderful employees and their families is that no one in the state and federal governments seems to be listening,” she said.
Ms Rinehart also used a speech at her WA Roy Hill mine on Wednesday to target some incentives at “fussy, work-shy” young people – but perhaps the strongest attacks were against the Albanian government.
She also made a strong case for the mining industry, saying it prevents Australia from becoming a country of ‘crocodile feeders’.
‘Young people who have been to university do not want to do work they think is beneath them and want to move into higher positions for immediate success, skipping the hard yards, perhaps feeling that their private education or time at university means they have to choose what work they do,” she said.
Ms Rinehart said part of her success was not having this attitude – despite her private education and admission to university, where she studied briefly before dropping out to work with her father Lang Hancock for Hancock Prospecting.
‘No matter how insignificant the work is, if it had to be done I had to go ahead and do it, whether that was Xeroxing all day, making coffee for night workers, opening station gates, pumping fuel into light aircraft, weekends working and holidays, checking typing, taking minutes for meetings,” she said.
“In short, don’t be too picky and work-shy,” she advised, making it clear that she had met many “fantastic” young people who did not have these drawbacks.
Ms Rinehart said the state and federal governments were not listening to struggling Australians
Ms Rinehart complained about the red tape and lengthy approval process imposed on miners, while taking a perhaps not-so-veiled shot at Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, whose extensive foreign travels have branded him ‘Airbus Albo’.
“Platitudes and press releases move exactly zero tons of iron, copper, nickel, rare earths or any other mineral,” she said.
‘The same goes for expensive government visits to overseas countries with alleged missions to increase trade.’
Ms Rinehart also took aim more specifically at the Albanian government, which she accused of “inconsistent” policies in the areas of workplace, social security and immigration policies.
She said the government was “not letting veterans, retirees, college students and non-violent, non-dangerous prisoners work as much as they would like.”
“What is the point of preventing our own citizens from working while at the same time bringing in more immigrants when our hospitals are already unable to cope – they even have to turn away emergency patients,” she said.
‘Our police can’t cope right now, crime is on the rise, traffic, travel safety and parking certainly won’t benefit from that – and as far as housing is concerned, how are we going to house all those extra people if we have all our own have sleeping places in cars? and increasingly on the streets?
“Plans to spend taxpayers’ money on more housing – hasn’t the government cocoon realized the long wait for concrete and other supplies?”
She encouraged her employees to spend 15 minutes a day lobbying governments on behalf of the mining industry, and also called for more people who support the sector to stand as candidates.
‘As an industry we need to do much, much more to stand up for the future of our industry; we should be proud of mining, which our country – and the world – needs,” she said.
‘Encourage and support people from our industry to stand for parliament. We need strong people in government, who are not afraid to stand up for common sense and for the mining industry.’
She argued that mining raises national living standards and, above all, fills public coffers, claiming that Hancock Prospecting pays more tax federally than the big banks Westpac, NAB or ANZ, as well as huge amounts of mining royalties to states.
“With every new mine we open, we provide billions of dollars to our government for our critical defense, hospitals, emergency services, veterans, elder care, nurses, police and more,” she said.
“With every new mine we open, Australia becomes a bigger country. Let us not be an industry of crocodile feeders, but of nation builders.”