Source : the age
The call comes from someone within Gina Rinehart’s inner circle.
The invitation is to attend an intimate dinner party at the mining billionaire’s sprawling mansion, perched above the Brisbane River behind high walls.
For $10,000 a ticket, attendees are offered a seat at the table with about 12 companions including Rinehart and One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, according to a number of sources familiar with the frequent dinners who were granted anonymity to speak freely.
On occasion, Rinehart is a late withdrawal. Hanson will still be there, sometimes joined by her star recruit, Barnaby Joyce.
The list of invitees includes figures from various industry bodies, particularly from the resources sector, as well as high-net-worth individuals and smaller business owners either involved with politics or apolitical.
The dinner parties are a valuable new revenue stream for One Nation, a party enjoying an extraordinary political rise as it attempts to bat away questions about its fundraising methods and financial disclosures.
The Australian Electoral Commission is examining whether One Nation has failed to declare any affiliated companies, such as its film production business, as “associated entities”.
This masthead can also reveal that Hanson has declared no income sources beyond her salary, even as she stood to earn about $15,000 in interest each year on a party loan, based on the interest rate One Nation paid on another internal loan the same year.
One Nation declined to answer detailed questions about the film business, the interest income and the dinners hosted by Australia’s richest person.
“Expenditure and donations will be disclosed to the relevant authorities according to their requirements,” a One Nation spokesman said in a statement.
A spokesman for Rinehart said: “Like every other business leader, Mrs Rinehart meets with a broad range of government, business, industry and other representatives to discuss issues important to Australia’s future, which is currently at risk.”
Private dinner parties at Rinehart’s Hawthorne home are widely known among conservative political circles.
Until recently, however, the guests enjoying sweeping views across the river towards New Farm and the Powerhouse theatre were not charged to attend. And although the political motivation was clear, the dinners were described to this masthead as a way to influence the Liberal National Party.
Now, would-be donors and dinner guests report hearing gloating about the donations flooding in for One Nation, the Coalition’s rival on the right. The implication is that the business figure or industry group being wooed does not want to be left out in the cold in this ambiguous game of fundraising and influence.
Previous reporting shows Rinehart has conducted One Nation fundraising events on board her private jet – for $15,000 a spot – and the luxury cruise ship The World.
But the frequent riverside dinner parties and the lower price of admission reveal a wider push to raise money for the ascending political force, plus further evidence of Rinehart’s determined efforts to assist Hanson.
As a party, One Nation has both a poor record of financial disclosure and unorthodox sources of assistance.
It now enjoys a $1.5 million plane donated by Rinehart in April and another $2 million in donations from close associates of Rinehart, announced on the same day with novelty cheques in an aircraft hangar.
In June, it ran an online fundraising drive to “fire the Liar” (Prime Minister Anthony Albanese), which it says raised $5 million. Online it sells merchandise including mousepads, beach balls, bottles of gin and Make Albo Go Away baseball caps.
The film
It has also entered the film business.
Hanson was forced to update her financial interest declaration to the Senate in February after this masthead revealed three undeclared companies she either directed or co-owned.
One of those companies was A Pauline Production Pty Ltd. It is jointly owned by Hanson, her chief of staff James Ashby and party treasurer Alex Jones, who pleaded guilty to electoral fraud in 2022, with no conviction recorded.
News that One Nation’s senior leadership was involved in a production company made sense. On Australia Day, the party released its deliberately offensive animated feature A Super Progressive Movie, which attacks “woke” culture and political opponents including Albanese while celebrating Hanson. It is available to stream for $14.99.
“Proceeds from A Super Progressive Movie will be redirected to One Nation to assist the party in winning seats from the appalling Albanese Labor government at the 2028 federal election,” a party spokesman has said.
Rights to the film are held by A Super Progressive Movie Pty Ltd, whose company address is One Nation’s headquarters. That company is co-run by Jones, the party treasurer. Hanson, Ashby and Jones together own half of it through A Pauline Production.
By law, a party must register any “associated entity” that is either controlled by the party or which operates, to a significant extent, for its benefit.
University of Queensland law professor Graeme Orr said properly disclosed associated entities allows the source of the money to be transparent and avoid being a backdoor conduit for funds.
“The rationale of the law is that those entities have to declare any gifts to them,” Orr told this masthead.
A spokesperson for the AEC said in a statement that “the matter is currently being examined”.
Any failure to register an associated entity could prove costly for One Nation. The penalty can reach three times the value of the unauthorised spending. The film reportedly cost $500,000 to produce.
Hanson is not alone in facing questions about the hazy world of political fundraising.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made headlines after attending an exclusive fundraising dinner hosted by Felix Lee at a Point Piper mansion owned by his father, who was investigated for suspected tax evasion.
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has denied making payments to the conservative NSW Liberal group The Reformers, whose activities are under the microscope of the Independent Commission Against Corruption.
But Hanson has a track record of failing to declare financial interests and gifts.
The loan
Unusually for a leader, she’s also lent money to her party. Electoral records show Hanson has made $575,000 in payments since she was elected as a senator in 2016. In 2024-25 alone, she lent the party $245,000.
A party spokesperson has described Hanson’s payments as a commercial loan, which she provided at rates “equal to those available in the commercial loan market”.
Based on another intra-party loan the same year, which carried a 6 per cent interest rate, Hanson stood to earn about $15,000 in interest each year.
Senators must disclose any additional sources of income beyond their salary that are “substantial”, generally defined as above $5000 a year. Hanson declares none.
Asked about the loan, the interest rate, and any income sources she ought to have disclosed, Hanson declined to comment.
Money has shifted about within the party, from one division to another, through further loans.
In the past two years, the federal division lent tens of thousands of dollars to the Queensland division. Victoria lent money to Queensland, too. Queensland then made a series of “admin loans” to South Australia totalling more than $150,000.
Last month, as the official party agent, Hanson was forced to change One Nation’s spending report for the 2024 Queensland state election at the request of the electoral commission, adding 138 transactions.
One Nation had failed to declare $255,000 in spending – nearly half its overall expenditure. It is also now at risk of losing its legal status in its home state of Queensland after the state’s regulator revealed that the party had failed to lodge audited financial statements over a three-year period.
For all its ambitions in state polls, the anti-immigration party’s main prize is power in federal parliament. Hanson this year declared One Nation’s intention to form government, encouraged by polling numbers that have eclipsed the Coalition’s.
The federal party received $3.3 million in payments in 2024-25, which included a handful of donations above the $16,900 disclosure threshold.
Adam Giles, the former Northern Territory chief minister who now runs Rinehart’s agriculture business, chipped in $27,000. He claims to have donated a further $500,000 since.
But $2.6 million of the party’s latest intake went undisclosed, a relatively high proportion compared with the main parties, says Melbourne University law professor Joo-Cheong Tham.
“Under the current rules, with the excessively high disclosure threshold, it’s extremely difficult if not impossible for a member of the public to get a proper insight,” Tham says.
Laws to lower the disclosure threshold to $5000 are set to take effect next year.
The $1.5 million light plane Rinehart donated will not be declared officially until February, as it was deemed a gift to the party rather than to Hanson.
A property register shows a Rinehart company, WNM MacDonald Pty Ltd, has lodged a “security interest” in the plane in an agreement with One Nation. But according to the party, the security interest should have been removed by now.
“There are no obligations imposed on One Nation, which wholly owns the aircraft,” a spokesman said.
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