@tallandtrue @Ex_spurt Lang Hancock (Gina's dad) was also a major donor to Joh Bjelke-Pedersen.

And before selling iron ore, he was in the asbestos mining business.

"Hancock’s first mining venture, in the mid-1930s, involved crocidolite (blue) asbestos he had discovered at Wittenoom Gorge, near Mulga Downs. In 1938 he went into partnership with a school friend, Ernest (Peter) Wright. Their business alliance was sealed with a handshake, and their companies, Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd and Wright Prospecting Pty Ltd, worked co-operatively under the label of Hanwright. Wright took the role of ‘negotiator and financial expert,’ while Hancock became the ‘spokesman and propagandist’ (Phillipson 1974, 48). The partnership was to endure until shortly before Wright’s death in 1985, ending as a result of diverging business philosophies and Wright’s disagreement with Hancock’s plans to start a new mine."

Source: https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/hancock-langley-frederick-lang-17492

It gets worse.

And here's the great-great-grandmother of Gina Rinehart, Sophia Hancock (nee Gregory): https://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/hancock-sophia-18960

You'll probably need to read this page on a computer, but basically Sophia, and her husband George Hancock, were among the original settlers in the town of Beverley, WA: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/37853063

Here's an account of the colonial settler violence and extrajudicial killings in Beverley, WA. Warning, it's brutal: https://yumi-sabe.aiatsis.gov.au/sites/default/files/outputs/2024-03/_In%20a%20State%20of%20War%20%20%20Governor%20James%20Stirling%20%20Extrajudicial%20Violence%20and%20the%20Conquest%20of%20Western%20Australia%20s%20Avon%20Valley%20%201830%201840.pdf

Now to be clear: I'm not saying Sophia and Gregory personally killed Aboriginal people themselves. But they did claim Aboriginal land while the Traditional Custodians were being brutally massacred.

This is all on the public record.

If she wants to talk about immigrants who moved to Australia, why not start by looking at her own ancestors, starting with Sophia and George?

And there's a direct through-line in the Hancock family from settler colonial frontier violence through to Gina's wealth and politics today.

A family fortune greatly expended at the expense of workers who worked at the family's asbestos mine. Or who worked with asbestos-based products made from asbestos sourced from that mine.

#auspol #FirstNations #Australia #WApol