Australia's richest person says she wants Trump-like reforms as election nears

By Melanie Burton

MELBOURNE (Reuters) -Mining magnate Gina Rinehart is calling for Australia to follow the U.S. lead by embarking on Donald Trump-style leadership to cut government largesse while boosting defence spending and energy security, as the country heads to the polls this weekend.

A vocal Trump supporter who attended the president’s inauguration party in Mar-a-Lago in January, Rinehart told Reuters that rather than "whine and whinge" about Trump and his policies, Australia could benefit from a similar approach.

"Australia must reduce its costs, cut government wastage and the expense of government tape, regulations, compliance, licences...," Rinehart said in exclusive comments sent to Reuters. 

Rinehart is Australia's richest person with a net worth Forbes puts at $30 billion. Her flagship mining company, Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd, is among the biggest donors to opposition leader Peter Dutton's Liberal Party, more than tripling donations in the 2024 financial year to A$500,000 ($320,000), according to Australian Electoral Commission data.

Voter concerns over the global fallout from Trump's stop-start tariffs and volatile diplomacy appear to have hurt the prospects of Dutton's conservative coalition ahead of the May 3 vote, with polls in the final stretch of the campaign showing the ruling centre-left Labor Party of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese easing ahead.

The trend is similar to that seen in Canada this week where Prime Minister Mark Carney's Liberals staged a major political comeback, fuelled by a backlash against Trump.

Rinehart said the outcome of Trump's tariffs policies may take a few months to play out, noting "more than 75 countries had asked to meet with U.S. Administration officials to negotiate on tariffs."

Dutton's office and the Labor party did not respond to requests for comment.

Rinehart's support of Dutton and the populist conservative movement in Australia has echoes of the support for Trump by billionaire Elon Musk, who is now a key adviser to the president.

Rinehart has not publicly sought any Australian government role, but has called for the establishment of a version of Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). She also wants Australia to withdraw from the Paris Agreement to combat climate change, as Trump did during his first term.

When Trump was inaugurated in January, Dutton was ahead in opinion polls, as Australians expressed anger over the cost of living and housing affordability.

In the week after Trump and Musk arrived in the White House, Dutton criticised public servants hired as "culture, diversity and inclusion advisers." He later promised to set up a Ministry of Government Efficiency, but has since played down comparisons with Trump and his policies.

Rinehart suggested without providing detail, that in Australia "the Left" was resisting public sector cuts because they benefited from bureaucratic largesse. 

"Perhaps not surprising the Left are also against Elon Musk and DOGE, you might think, wouldn’t they like to see this taxpayer drain minimalised, but no, certainly not those with snouts in the trough. And not those who may be concerned they will have to pay money back where wrongly taken, or even go to jail."

Dutton has proposed cutting around 41,000 non-frontline government jobs in Canberra, a figure Labor said was impossible given the number of jobs in the capital fitting the criteria.

FOSSIL FUELS, DEFENCE BOOST

Rinehart has been a vocal supporter of fossil fuels to boost energy security and lower prices. She was pictured during the Trump campaign smiling and wearing a sign that read "Drill Baby Drill." 

Dutton has been a major backer of natural gas, pledging to incentivise more production, and wants to introduce nuclear power, in contrast to Labor which is relying on renewables and batteries to lower power prices and meet carbon commitments.

"Probably the biggest single government tape that needs to be on pause, so our economy has the chance to recover, is the Paris Accord," Rinehart said.    

"Could it be that the American public are ahead of us, they understand that cutting the mining and export of fossil fuels brings less revenue, less jobs and opportunities," she added. 

Last month, in response to questions that Liberal Party policies had not gone far enough for Rinehart on gas, while at the same time had not ditched a commitment to net zero emissions, Dutton said: “We’ll have points of difference with many people, but that doesn’t mean that it impacts your friendship or your relationship with different business people.”

Rinehart last week called for Australia, a key U.S. security ally, to spend 5% of its gross domestic product on national security, in line with the Trump administration's policies.

Labor has pledged to boost defence spending by A$50 billion over the next decade, but would have to more than double its current spending to meet a 5% goal.  

Rinehart's Hancock Prospecting in February disclosed for the first time a roughly $1.3 billion U.S. investment portfolio, with many of the largest holdings in companies involved in energy, mining and rare earths - crucial for defence and aerospace technologies.

A Reuters analysis of the 10 top holdings show they are up 2.3% in the first four months of the year, in contrast to a 5.5% fall in the S&P 500, thanks largely to a 57% surge in shares of rare earths producer MP Materials.  

"Americans may be ahead of us recognising they want strong leadership providing defence of their country and people, which President Trump is also busy doing," Rinehart said.

"Although, they may not want their taxpayers dollars and defence personnel’s lives risked to help allies who don’t understand them, whine and whinge and worse, are incredibly rude to them, and who do bugger all to provide their own defence."

($1 = 1.5603 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Melanie Burton in Melbourne. Editing by Praveen Menon and Lincoln Feast.)