Gina Rinehart Promotes Her New Book and the Australian Mining Industry

Sydney, Nov 23, 2012 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Who would have thought that Australia's mining industry needs promotion, after all, aren't they selling all our resources to China? Isn't that what we are being told by our leaders and politicians? And what about all that money, shouldn't that be taken from those big mining companies and given to the poor?

Someone once said the same thing to Jesus, and he responded "the poor you will always have, but you will not always have me". Well, before you think this is a precocious act of self aggrandisement, bring it into modern day context and try to explain how you can actually generate economic growth by taking money from those who are developing this nation, and giving it to those who by nature have their hand out and don't, won't or can't contribute to Australia's sovereign wealth.

Many things need a champion. A champion who gives a large piece of themselves to fight against the mindless crowd, overcome the obstacles, and more importantly provide an easier road for those who follow after.

Looking at Gina Rinehart last night at her "Northern Australia and Then Some" book launch in Sydney, you see a woman who faces great challenges and overcomes them. She shuns the idea that she is an "heiress", as the company that she built was inherited bankrupt through the inappropriate allocation of iron ore royalty. Now, exactly 60 years since Lang Hancock spotted the red stained hillside that has been the source of so much wealth for Australia, we also see that in parallel with that development was the building of a mining state, the construction of rail and infrastructure, the dismantling of export policies that restricted the sale of mineral assets to other countries, and the rise of Western Australia as "the" mining state.

Unlike most school girls, Gina Rinehart was absorbed by her father's business, and it was much more than her school holidays that were spent assisting her father Lang Hancock in the matters of business and mining. When Gina was asked last night if she expected she would be where she is today, running this organisation, she hesitated, and replied, "no". But really, would she have been anything else?

Well, getting back to the question of the promotion of the mining industry.

The answer is pretty simple. The Australian resource industry is desperate for credibility in a country where the words "carbon footprint" and "super profits" dominate the thinking of the average Australian. The Australian resource industry needs champions who demonstrate their commitment to the growth of community, business and industry. It has always been that way, there will always be obstacles, there will always be critics, and there will always be poor people.

Let's support the champions or at least refrain from stoning them to death in an act of frenzied and misguided nationalism. They are rare.

Watch other champions, like Mark Cutifani (CEO of Anglogold Ashanti) and his address to the mining industry,here:
http://www.abnnewswire.net/press/en/73176/cutifani

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Editorial: Tim Mckinnon