News

Australia’s richest person Gina Rinehart has revealed she once lived with ‘little electricity’ in a party speech as she urged employees to give their drivers a simple message about mining.

Ms Rinehart delivered the speech at the Christmas party for her Roy Hill iron ore mining operation held on the banks of the Swan River in Perth on December 3.

She used the speech to emphasise the importance of the mining sector as ‘truly essential’ for Australia’s power generation, before the surprise remark she had previously lived without reliable power.

‘When you think of all the things we need electricity for, air conditioning, TVs, fridges, washing machines, cooking, lighting, hospitals, I for one would not want to live with little electricity, I’d prefer reliable electricity,’ she said.

‘I lived for years with part-time electricity from the station generator, but I’m not recommending you would like that.’

Ms Rinehart also urged those present at the event to ‘shout together far and wide’ about the ‘massive contribution’ the mining industry makes to Australia and the Australian people, including passing the message on to Uber drivers.

‘We cannot take our industry for granted, and so it’s important we continue to remind our family and friends, our cabbies and Uber drivers, dentists and doctors, teachers and pollies that Government must cut, not add to, onerous regulations, costs and burdens which hurt and delay investment,’ she said.

Ms Rinehart said the Christmas party was her ‘favourite’ Roy Hill event of the year but admitted she had ‘a bit of trouble’ picking an outfit for the Arabian theme and joked about the proposition of her dressing as a belly dancer.

‘The idea of all black or belly dancers, well, me in the latter, no! Definitely no!’, she joked.

The Roy Hill mine in Western Australia’s Pilbara region is the largest asset owned by Ms Rinehart’s company, Hancock Prospecting.

Ms Rinehart hit the headlines in October after she pulled a $15million sponsorship deal with Australia’s national netball team the Diamonds after some team members indicated they were uncomfortable wearing the company’s logo.

Players threw their support behind Indigenous teammate Donnell Wallam, who requested permission not to wear the Hancock Prospecting logo.

The players’ criticism stemmed from comments made by Ms Rinehart’s late father Lang Hancock, who called for the sterilisation of Aboriginal people in a 1984 television interview.