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Billionaire miner and investor Gina Rinehart has urged all Australians to keep constant pressure on politicians to put the nation on an “up path” through every decision they make, and this will be the surest way to lift living standards.

In an interview, Mrs Rinehart says she uses her influence where she can to “encourage more common sense policies” that are firmly pro-Australia.

“Australians should be constantly questioning our governments, are your policies going to lift our country up, or are they going to drag us down? Will your policies improve our living standards, or drag them down?,” she tells The Weekend Australian.

“Will your policies improve our education standards, and not be anti-Australia, or drag our education down? Will your policies add to our vital defence, or will they drag them down?

Politicians should be benchmarked on whether their policies increase investment or drag it down, she said.

Governments when they leave office should be aiming to see Australia left in a better state than it has been.

“Sadly, too often, policies pursued in Canberra and at times our state governments, drag us down and are not in the best interests of Australians and their standards of living,” she said.

“There is much work to be done to see our country restored to the levels it used to have”.

Mrs Rinehart and her father, Lang Hancock, are named together on The Australian’s list of the 60 Most Influential People of the Past Six Decades. The list is in The Weekend Australian’s 60th Anniversary Collector’s Edition magazine and across digital platforms.

Hancock is the 70 per cent owner of Roy Hill, the Pilbara iron ore miner she built from the ground up. She also controls vast rural holdings through the S. Kidman & Co cattle stations and high profile Australian retail brands such as Driza-Bone jackets and Rossi boots. She is also a high-profile backer of the Australian swimming team.

Mrs Rinehart is Australia’s richest person with estimated wealth of more than $50bn, according to The Australian’s The List, mostly derived from her Hancock Prospecting mining empire.

Mrs Rinehart, meanwhile, described Northern Territory senator and prominent no vote campaigner Jacinta Nampijinpa Price as one of Australia’s most influential people for being prepared to speak honestly when it comes to Indigenous Australians doing it the toughest.

Mrs Rinehart’s comments come as Senator Nampijinpa Price, the opposition’s spokeswoman on Indigenous Australians, has set out her vision for a “second way” to close the poverty gap in an essay for the 60th anniversary magazine.

She nominated Senator Nampijinpa Price as one of Australia’s most influential people of the past six decades for her willingness “to speak up for truth about marginalised Indigenous Australians, in particular women and children, and brave endeavours to drive change to help them”. Senator Nampijinpa Price has also been named in The Australian’s list of the 60 Most Influential People.

Mrs Rinehart is a strong advocate for smaller government and lighter regulation as a way to boost investment and prosperity. She has also called for governments to be more proactive in pursuing economic and social development across northern Australia.

Mrs Rinehart, who has recently become a player in gas and lithium mining, says she is proud of her family company and her role in creating projects such as Roy Hill that have added significantly in terms of jobs and opportunities as wealth that benefits all Australians.

“Too often people forget that everything around us had to be either mined or grown, from our cars and laptops to our clothes and medical equipment. Hancock is an Australian company, and we have been able to use the profits from our mining operations to invest elsewhere such as in agriculture and more recently iconic Aussie companies, Rossi boots and Driza-Bone, along with supporting our thousands of employees, Aussie athletes, and worthwhile charities,” Mrs Rinehart says.

“When mining does well, Australians do well. Though I should add, when mining doesn’t do well, nor do Australians.”