The current ‘womance’ (female ‘bromance’) between Gina Rinehart and Pauline Hanson is causing tongues to wag around the country.
The ‘Magnate’ and the ‘Megaphone’ are yet to make the cover of Women’s Weekly, but they’re certainly an item.
It’s an interesting pairing.
We have the big miner - who carries more spare change in her Dulce & Gabbana handbag than most of us earn in a year - tossing luxurious overseas trips, a bulldozer painted orange and a free aircraft to the political populist who has built a career around being the ‘Little Aussie Battler’ fighting Australia’s corrupt elites.
You can feel the love in this clip from the recent Townsville Bulletin Bush Summit report (although I’m not sure what’s going on with Gina’s face!).
The Odd Couple?
In various press releases, Pauline insists she and her new billionaire bestie share many common core values.
They are both roughly the same age, both patriotic defenders of Australia and Australian values, as well as being gushing fans of Donald Trump and the old Queensland Premier, Joh Bjelkepetersen.
They are keen on fewer regulations, lower taxes and have an almost visceral distrust of big government. Both happily push for higher taxation for multinational oil and gas miners while vigorously opposing any taxes or levies being imposed on iron ore and coal miners.
They also appear to share a deep conviction that Australia would be a much better place for everyone if journalists stopped asking inconvenient questions.
Pauline, and her handlers, have made it very clear they will no longer allow certain reporters, representatives or employees of several media outlets to attend One Nation events.
Nothing says transparency, openness and accountability like completely evading questions about potential undue political influence, or inconsistencies around financial scrutiny at public forums or fundraisers.
And neither seem too keen to discuss their blossoming relationship.
Although Pauline has publicly praised Gina for ‘doing it tough’ and claimed she too has ‘struggled to pay the bills’.
This made a few eyeballs pop around the country.
Australian voters usually associate ‘doing it tough’ with eye-wateringly long Centrelink queues, final demands on power bills and trying to make mince and pasta dishes stretch to three evening meals.
‘Doing it tough’ normally doesn’t apply to someone sitting in a mansion wondering which bank they should borrow money from in order to buy another mine.
Social Media Goes ‘Meh’ Mostly
Here in Gladstone comments on social media ranged from: ‘Not my business’, ‘Pauline deserves a holiday too’, ‘Love is love’, ‘Pauline can socialise with anyone she wants to’.
Plenty liked the Australian version of the Trump and Musk relationship: ‘Good, someone who has business sense and gives back to the community’.
More than a few who pointed out there are rules for this sort of thing: ‘Better hope Pauline has declared the gifts’.
While some defended the trip because ‘Pauline is checking on Europe’s immigration problems’.
Plenty piled on to point out the suggested agenda for the relationship: ‘Gina setting ON policy’.
Then there were the attacks: ‘What about Albo and Anthony Pratt?’, as if pointing out the other side are more corrupt which makes your corruption okay?
Now Back to Our Serial
This story of the ‘Billionaire and the Battler’ probably isn’t the strangest political romance we’ve seen in Australia (Bob Hawke and Alan Bond spring to mind, as does the current PM’s mateship with Lachlan Murdoch), but it does feel like we’ve wandered into an episode of ‘The Real Housewives of Hancock’.
And will things heat up in the next season as Barnaby struggles to regain Gina’s affections while Pauline wonders if there’s enough money in the chequing account for a three-way affair?
Stay tuned.
Cheers from Flynn!