Israeli defence personnel and politicians might not be top billing in the boardrooms and reception halls of many countries, but that hardly bothers Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart.
With a world view desiccated by inherited wealth, the mining magnate has little time for what might be broadly called the “common good”.
Rinehart does, however, have time for Israeli defence prowess. In her address to the 2024 News Corp Australia National Bush Summit, held in Port Hedland, Western Australia, the executive chair of Hancock Prospecting had “defence” on her brain.
But a closer look revealed it had little to do with Australia’s defence so much as her mining assets.
“Mindset change that is needed should include the government’s most important responsibility, and that is the defence of our country. It’s no good having the resources of the Pilbara unless we can export them and receive revenue from them, hence we should have defence to keep our railways and ports open, and our vital sea lanes.”
What, then, was needed? Rinehart promoted her vision as common good. “So, surrounding this vital Pilbara engine, we should have the protective iron domes like the ones in Israel, plus war drones and smart sea mines, plenty of them, and similarly across our sea lanes and ports and some islands, from the north-west through to the north-east.”
Her interest in emulating an Israeli-styled approach to defence, taking into account that country’s exalted hardware, has not abated.
On June 18, she told the Townsville News Corp Bush summit, held in North Queensland, of her idea to advance the military industrial complex. She thought it opportune to encourage a military culture in a city that is already garrisoned.
Evidently, it’s in dire need of a revival. “That important culture could flourish again, if we also offered free land, be that near Prairie if suitable, or elsewhere near Townsville, to the Israelis and transport here for their skilled people, immediate families and equipment, and encouraged the Israelis to develop and build their advanced war drones, and other advances in defence, and or improve upon their Israeli style domes, and manufacture them here to sell to our country and to help make our people and critical infrastructure safe.”
Her speech had all the hallmarks of the pampered, subsidised magnate.
Rinehart is keen to savage the budgets of any number of departments be they the Federal Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Australian Fisheries Management Authority (fisheries) or the Federal Department of Industry, Science and Resources.
She is particularly eager to retain the kitty of the Federal Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Clean Energy Regulator.
Then there are all those vacant federal offices that could be converted to accommodation for “homeless veterans, struggling pensioners, and frightened women and children, who face horrendous unacceptable violence and rapes”.
Rinehart was in Townsville to consider how it might benefit from her sagacity. The city had an international airport, a port with 10 working berths, an upgraded shipping channel able to accommodate “cruise ships up to 300 metres long”. Oh, and “we speak English”.
Taking the scissors to red tape and lowering taxes, the city and its environs would become more appealing to industries, she said.
What did she have in mind? A holy trinity of sorts: Microchips, Elon Musk’s communication satellites and Israeli defence manufacturing.
Land designated for wind turbines near Prairie (Rinehart calls them “toxic, asbestos riddled, bird and bat maiming, bird and bat killing”) would be far better given over to, for instance, those in the “Taiwan computer chip industries”.
“Let’s let them know we can offer a safer substitute for their world leading microchips manufacture and development, and would make them welcome.”
Build an airport at, or near Prairie; create temporary homes with swimming pools, a country club with exemplary Taiwanese cuisine and her list went on.
As Musk could get land “for his SpaceX satellite construction and launches”. Give him water and infrastructure as well, Rinehart said. “He needs land to expand, and an alternate weather place in an allied country for his multiple satellite launches.” The launches would also “definitely add a tourist attraction”.
Of the three suggestions, the one proposing the grant of land to Israeli defence manufacturing irked the most.
It did not take long for a Change.org petition to be launched, describing Rinehart’s ambition as one of seeking the establishment “of an Israeli military base in this pristine region”. It said to introduce such a base “would fundamentally alter the area’s character, disturbing not only the landscape but also the local communities and wildlife”.
The petition’s organisers may have little to fear about Prairie’s prospects, but given the federal government’s tendency to lease sovereignty to the US military imperium with cheerful enthusiasm, their concerns should not be lightly dismissed.
[Binoy Kampmark currently lectures at RMIT University.]