Accusations and allegations. Lies and betrayals. Fear and loathing. Fraud, theft, power and corruption. Friends turning on friends, children and parents turning on each other, heirs and heiresses at war. Legacies in dispute. Family empires feuding.
Not even the scriptwriters of drama-charged Succession or Game of Thrones could dream up the war of words and wits playing out in the Western Australian Supreme Court right now, as two of Australia’s richest women fight out a clash-of-titans legal battle.
In one corner of this billionaire boxing ring is Hancock Prospecting executive chair, Gina Rinehart, 69, Australia’s richest citizen with an estimated worth of $38 billion. In the opposite corner is Angela Bennett, 78, Australia’s fourth-richest citizen with a $4.6 billion fortune, the daughter of Peter Wright, Gina’s father Lang Hancock’s one-time business partner.
Their face-off is for the lands the Indigenous Banyjima people call Karijini – home to Hope Downs, the most state-of-the-art mining complex in the Pilbara. Owned and run by Rinehart’s Hancock Group and Rio Tinto, it produces 30 million tonnes of iron ore annually, a payload worth $4.8 billion with more due in future royalties and equity.
Who found Hope Downs? Who owns it? Who has rights to it? Who cares? With heartland Australia bracing for a summer of wildfires and most of us grappling with the cost-of-living crisis, a story on the rich trying to get richer shouldn’t matter. But when it’s Gina Rinehart and her family involved, Australia can’t get enough.
“Gina is one of the most polarising characters in the world,” says leading business journalist Ross
